In the Blog
Oh no, not the Curse!
Remember those books, classes and films you had to experience as a kid that explained how your body was soon going to be undergoing some “changes”? How you’d be growing hair in new places, getting flesh where no flesh was before, and feeling “special” feelings you’d never experienced? Oh, and let’s not forget the matter of the blood. All in the name of becoming a woman - if you didn’t know any better, it would sound like a horror movie.
Ginger Snaps is another in a long line of horror movies where the terror begins with a young woman getting her period for the first time. Carrie, the Stephen King novel that became a movie starring Sissy Spacek, works on similar lines, with the title character aquiring telekinetic powers as soon as she’s, uh, visited by Aunt Flo. I happened to be reading Carrie at the same time that I saw this movie, and I started to feel like the whole world was freaking out over periods. But Ginger Snaps is interesting because it makes no bones about playing on cultural anxieties surrounding womanhood, and it makes some fascinating (and funny) links between puberty and, well, turning into a werewolf.
I won’t spoil the movie by going into plot details too much, but I can tell you that it’s a complex, character-driven horror movie where women do something other than get killed in the first five minutes. The relationship between the two sisters is also really nicely sketched out, and doubtless you’ll be able to relate to both shy, introverted, protective Brigitte and smart, lippy, morbid Ginger. The special effects leave something to be desired - this is no Waterworld (thank heaven), but the characters and story more than make up for it. Definitely recommended for a post-Halloween movie night.