I was all over the place today. Work went mostly smoothly outside of one very unpleasant person, but after that, the fun began. I had already driven past Raymond James Stadium when I realized I had forgotten my smoothie cup. After some deliberation, I decided to turn around and add like 10 minutes to the drive. Then, after I picked up President Baby, I stopped at a gas station to get a lottery ticket because I'd like the 1.72 billion money. It was only when I stopped and got him out of the car seat, I realized I didn't have the winning ticket I was going to use to pay for it. Because I didn't have cash, I just left. Then I went to Costco and finally, I'm back home. I had thought someone had broken into our garage and only stolen our laundry detergent. It wasn't until I got home just now that I found out that the detergent had fallen into the washer and the lid had shut over it. I'm over today, seriously. So yeah, I also got to watch...
Ginger Snaps (2000)
A while ago I made a list of my top 10 werewolf movies. That was difficult for me for a couple of reasons; there aren't many werewolf movies and there are even fewer good ones. Unfortunately for me, I hadn't seen this movie before I started that list because it would have made the top five.
Two sisters, Brigette and Ginger are teenage outcasts. The older sister, Ginger, played by the always awesome Katherine Isabelle (seriously, why isn't she a bigger star?!) is obsessed with death. She and her younger sister, Brigette, are always taking weird artsy pictures showing them suffering various types of brutal deaths. They also have a pact to leave the suburbs or die together by the age of 16. I got a kick out of Brigette because she had a permanent scowl throughout the movie. Watching her interact with the normies is funny because everything about her screams that she would rather be anywhere else in the world. It's really funny to see her standing in the background somewhere just looking pissed off for absolutely no reason. Ginger is a little less intense but is the crazier of the two. Despite sharing Brigette's disdain for the world, she has the confidence to stand up for herself and is quick to step in for her younger sister at a moment's notice. The dynamic between the two is the heart of the movie and it's the most fun, they're two very entertaining characters.
Now, you'd think two teenagers who act this way would be the product of a broken home, right? It's the opposite. I loved how supportive and optimistic their mother was towards them. She desperately tries to bond with the two and always gives them the benefit of the doubt. You can tell they love their mother as well, but they don't relate to her at all so everyone is frustrated after each interaction. Watching Brigette and Ginger, you realize they only have each other, despite their mom's best efforts. Near the end, there's a really sweet scene, where their mom shows how much she loves them and proves she truly was their ride or die, but at this point, it's too late. Their relationship isn't given all that much screen time but I liked their mother and her unconditional love for her daughters despite being opposites. The father doesn't factor much into the story, with his defeated looks at his daughters' antics, he seems to have thrown in the towel in trying to reach them long ago.
So let's talk about the plot. The Canadian town they live in is experiencing a rash of brutal dog killings. In the first two minutes, we get a closeup of the remains of a poor very good boy. I didn't like it... at all. My biggest beef with this movie is that too many dogs die and you all know my thoughts on that. Thankfully, they're almost all off-camera. One night, Ginger drags Brigette along so they can kidnap the dog of the local mean girl. Ginger having no chill is a big theme of this movie. Unfortunately, they run afoul of a werewolf and Ginger gets attacked. Brigette manages to distract Wolfie long enough so they can try and make their getaway. During the chase, Wolfie gets splattered by an oncoming truck driven by the town drug dealer who seems to be only a couple of years older than Ginger. After the attack, Ginger slowly starts to turn, both outwardly and in her personality while Brigette teams up with the same drug dealer to try and save her.
One thing I liked about this movie is it doesn't waste time with what the creature is. A day after the attack, Brigette confronts the dealer, Sam, asking him what he hit. He says it looked like a lycanthrope. Brigette responds that she knows what that means and that's it. They don't waste time with "Werewolves aren't real!" nonsense, they just get right to the action. The movie then pivots to Brigette and Sam trying to save Ginger while she gets further along in her transformation.
It's fun to watch both sides of the equation as both know time is running out. Ginger is losing control and eventually is starting to enjoy the taste of blood. The only thing keeping her human is her love for her sister and it's obvious, if not for Brigette, there would be a lot more bodies piled up by now. I enjoyed how in this movie, Sam and Brigette found a cure and it made sense how it could work. It ended up leading to one of my favorite scenes. Brigette is armed with the cure but she knows it could just as easily kill Ginger as save her. She happens upon the teenager whom Ginger infected during sex previously. He's barely human and tries killing her, but she manages to stab him in the neck with the syringe holding the cure. You think he's dead but he eventually stands back up and has no idea what's going on. He can only manage, "I have to get back to class," and awkwardly walks away with the syringe still sticking out of his neck, it's really funny.
The movie also builds really well to the finale. There's a big party at the greenhouse of the drug dealer. At this point, Ginger knows what Brigette and Sam are up to and she decides she's going to embrace the change. It's quite the moment when she steps into the party because she sucks up all the oxygen in the room. She's at the last stages of the transformation but people think it's a costume and all eyes are on her. You can tell business is about to pick up, and the entire time the anticipation builds because you can't be sure what she's planning. It's tense and awesome in all the right ways.
Outside of the disturbing amount of dead dogs, I don't have any complaints about Ginger Snaps. It's funny, the story is good, the leads are awesome and the side characters are fun! The monster design is just OK, but the movie only cost 4.5 million money and that money wasn't going towards Wolfie. That's why they kept the monster hidden until the very end. It's very well done and they manage to stick the ending. It concluded how it should have, with the relationship between the sisters.
8.5 Dr. Chainsaws!
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