Tweet
Released by: Lionsgate
Released on: April 13, 2004.
Director: Brett Sullivan
Cast: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Tatiana Maslany, Janet Kidder, Eric Johnson
Year: 2004
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Picking up shortly after the events in the first Ginger Snaps, we find Brigitte (Emily Perksin) on the lam, injecting herself with Wolfsbane in order to keep her lycanthropy under control. It seems a male werewolf is hunting her down in hopes of mating with her, though she's none too keen on this plan. When the wolf slaughters a local boy who's interested in her, she ends up in custody and is dumped into a rehab center for young girls - it seems the needle marks on her body from the Wolfsbane injections have lead them to believe that she is on heroin.
While she's in the clinic, she meets Ghost (Tatiana Maslany) - a young woman who is in the clinic after her grandmother was almost burned alive in a fire a few months back. Ghost helps Brigette to get out of the clinic when the wolf turns up in the area and they head back to Ghost's grandmothers house. Once there, Brigitte and Ghost learn a whole lot more about each other and team up so that the wolf on the hunt doesn't kill them both.
Ginger (Catharine Isabelle) is really only a supporting character in this film, appearing to offer tidbits of wisdom to her sister from beyond the grave - this time out it's all about Brigitte. Emily Perkins proves she's more than up to the task of carrying the film though. While in the first film she was really just a mopey Goth kid, this time out her character is more sympathetic which makes for a more interesting story (at least as far as Brigitte is concerned).
In the first film, with the lycanthropy as a metaphor for menstruation, the film carved itself an odd little niche as a sort of feminist werewolf movie. This sequel puts more emphasis on action and suspense than it does on the normal problems of two teenage girls that make up portions of the first film. Aside from some bizarre scenes in the clinic involving a group masturbation session and a sexually deviant orderly, Unleashed plays more like a survival horror film than anything else.
With that in mind, the movie is well made - the hospital, with its abandoned sections in disarray and its cold and clinical color scheme - makes for a great set, and a rather eerie one at that. A few really solid jump scares keep you on the edge of your set and while the film doesn't quite hit the levels of originality the original did, it is a solid, entertaining horror film.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Ginger Snaps 2 looks great on this DVD. It's a very dark film so there was plenty of room for the blacks to bounce and dance around the screen but thankfully they remain stable and keep the mood just right. Colors, while somewhat gloomy looking (intentionally), are natural looking and there's a pretty sizeable amount of detail evident in the picture, which is free of print damage and debris. There's a little bit of edge enhancement here and there but it's minor. Overall, the movie looks great.
An effective Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack adorns the DVD and while it's more subdued than you might think, it gets the job done just nicely and really throws in a few punches when the action gets going towards the end. Dialogue is clean and clear and while there could have been more bass response during the action scenes, overall this is a very nice sound mix.
Six deleted scenes are included, all with optional director's commentary from Brett Sullivan. Most of these were cut for pacing reasons and don't really add much to the film, but hearing Sullivan explain why he made the choices he did in regards to what he kept and didn't keep is mildly interesting. An animated storyboard sequence is up next, running a few minutes and showing various scenes sketched out and a few contrasted against their live action counterparts. A brief slideshow also gives us a better look at Ghost's Comic Book Art, though it's only a couple of pages. Finally, executive producers John Fawcett and Noah Segal as well as producer Paula Devonshire join director Brett Sullivan for a running commentary track. I had fairly high hopes for this after enjoying the movie but sadly, they seem more intent on kissing each others' asses than discussing the trials and tribulations of making the film. There are few interesting anecdotes here and there but most of this track is simply a love in for the production team, which isn't particularly interesting to listen to. An Easter egg easily found off the main menu brings up a few trailers for other Lion's Gate films but there is no trailer for the feature included on this DVD.
The Final Word:
Ginger Snaps 2 - Unleashed is a worth follow up to one of the more unique werewolf films to come out in the last twenty years and while it isn't as original as its predecessor, it's still a solid horror movie. Lionsgate has done a nice job on the DVD.