Tweet
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: July 22nd, 2014.
Director: John Fawcett
Cast: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Jesse Ross, Mimi Rogers
Year: 2000
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, 2000's Ginger Snaps follows two teenage sisters, sixteen year old Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and fifteen year old Brigitte (Emily Perkins). They live at home with their mother (Mimi Rogers) and father (John Bourgeois) but these two don't quite fit in at school. They're obsessed with faking their own deaths and photographing the staging and don't always get along with their peers. Additionally, neither one of them has started menstruating yet, which is obviously atypical for their age.
Shortly after Ginger's period finally does start, she's attacked while the two are out walking at night, not by a human predator, but by a werewolf. The beast is hit by a van driven by Sam (Kris Lemeche), the local pot dealer, and the girls go home with Ginger making it out alive despite a nasty wound on her shoulder. Shortly after that night, however, Ginger starts to change. Not only does she start showing interest in the boys who she previously held no interest in but she's become more aggressive than ever before. Brigitte is fairly certain that the attack has changed her sister and when Ginger starts growing hair in strange places and then sprouts a tail, it would seem she's right. And the only one who might be able to help her, or at the very least believe her story? That friendly pot dealer. But with a full moon and Halloween both fast approaching, they'd better hurry up.
Made on a modest budget just outside of Toronto, Ontario and done completely with practical special effects (no CGI here, thankfully), Ginger Snaps is a wicked mix of horror and black comedy delivered through a wonderfully skewed narrative. Obviously the script is able to make some interesting comparisons about the changes that Ginger goes through both because of puberty and because of the werewolf attack, giving what could have easily turned into another lousy teen horror picture some legitimate bite.
None of this would matter all that much if the performances weren't up to par, but the movie not only meets but exceeds expectations in this department. Mimi Rogers and John Bourgeois are amusing as the parents of the girls, meddling just enough here and there to get themselves into trouble but helping to further anchor the picture with a good sense of humor. The pedestrian lives they lead are so normal that they really look past a lot of what goes on in their house the way many parents, jaded and stuck in their routines, often do. Kris Lemeche is likeable enough as Sam and plays his part well but the real stars here are, not surprisingly Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. Yes, their characters are slightly goth, maybe even emo, which can be a recipe for obnoxious disaster when handled wrong, but the script gets the characters right and the actresses make their characters believable. The bond that exists between them, sort of an 'us against the world' deal, feels real enough that when it becomes stressed in the later part of the picture we can get behind Emily's efforts to save her sister, but at the same time it never feels corny or forced and again, that black humor that plays such an important part in the effectiveness of this film stays at the forefront.
The practical effects are well done and the film is plenty gory. It moves at a good pace and features nice production values. The suburban Ontario locations work well, offering up a perfectly mundane place that suitable fits the humdrum lives of most of its inhabitants. Slick, nicely edited and really effective Ginger Snaps holds up well as a clever and refreshingly original horror pictures.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shout! Factory debuts Ginger Snaps on Blu-ray framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. When the movie was released on DVD by Artisan way back when it was pretty much barebones and it was also fullframe, so while Canada got an extras-laden special edition (more on that in a bit), this disc marks the first American home video release in the film's original aspect ratio. Despite some minor compression artifacts here and there, the movie looks pretty good on Blu-ray on this release. Colors are reproduced quite faithfully (this is a sometimes very drab looking movie but the color scheme fits the story well) and the reds in the gore scenes have a bit of pop to them. Detail is advanced over the DVD release and although some minor print damage does show up here and there, for the most part the source material is pretty clean. Grain is prevalent throughout the movie but never overpowering and there are no obvious issues with noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Black levels are solid, skin tones look pretty natural - this is a decent picture and would seem to be a pretty faithful reproduction of the source.
Audio options are provided in English language DTS-HD 2.0 and DTS-HD 5.1 with optional subtitles available in English only. If you've got the hardware to handle it, the 5.1 mix is the way to go as it is pretty effective in its use of the rear channels to help spread out the sound effects and score in some key scenes. Both tracks are nicely balanced and free of hiss or distortion but again, the 5.1 mix does demonstrate more depth. Dialogue is clear regardless of which option you go for and bass response is pretty solid here too, you'll notice it when the soundtrack kicks in and during the more action intensive scenes.
So yeah, no extras on the original US DVD release, but lots on the Canadian disc from TVA. Carried over from that disc are two audio commentary tracks, the first with Director John Fawcett and the second with Writer Karen Walton. Fawcett's track is strong, as he basically walks us through a scene specific look at what his motivations were, what he wanted to accomplish in each of the key scenes, what it was like directing the two young leading ladies and quite a bit more. He also talks about the effects work in the picture and reveals some information about some of the locations as well. Walton's track is also quite strong, though not quite as involving. She shares some stories about what inspired her to write this picture and maybe not so surprisingly, a lot of her actual experiences in high school served as fodder for the picture. She also shares her thoughts on some of the characters and talks about her feelings on the finished picture.
The disc also includes a brand new lengthy sixty-five minute long featurette entitled Ginger Snaps: Blood, Teeth And Fur made up of new interviews with Fawcett and Walton, as well as cast members Emily Perkins and Jesse Moss, Producer Steve Hoban, Make-up Effects artist Paul Jones, Composer Mike Shields and Editor Brett Sullivan (sadly, no involvement from Ms. Isabelle). While Fawcett and Wilson do understandably cover some of the same ground that they travel in their respective commentary tracks, getting input from Perkins and Moss alone makes this completely worthwhile. Additional technical inform from Shields and Sullivan about their contributions is interesting to hear about and Paul Jones gives us some great insight into the effects work that plays such an important part in the success of the film.
Also new to this release is a “Women In Horror Panel†entitled Growing Pains: Puberty In Horror Films featuring Kristy Jett, Axelle Carolyn, Heidi Honeycutt and Rebekah McKendry discussing the feature and related issues. The focus here is on growing up as a young female with an interest in horror films and while at just under thirty-minutes in length it's probably a little longer than it needs to be, the ladies involved do offer up some interesting opinions on the subject and lend some valid and astute commentary as to what makes Ginger Snaps work in ways that other horror pictures don't necessarily even attempt.
The disc also carries over twenty-five minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by John Fawcett and Karen Walton that is quite worth listening to. There's some interesting 'back story' elements in here that offer more character development to some of the supporting players. Fawcett explains why he took it out while Walton explains why she wrote it in the first place. The material is typically pretty solid but at the same time you can see that it might have hurt the pacing of the film.
The vintage five minute Making Of Ginger Snaps featurette that was on that Canadian DVD is on here too, and it offers a quick behind the scenes look at the making of the movie. Also carried over are a brief Creation Of The Beast featurette that shows off some of the effects work, a two minute long featurette on the director called Being John Fawcett in which the two lead actresses talk about their work, and some interesting Cast Auditions And Rehearsals clips that show Isabelle and Perkins trying out for their respective roles.
Rounding out the extras are a pair of trailers, two TV Spots and a still gallery of production design artwork. Animated menus and chapter stops are also included and as this is a combo pack release, a DVD version of the movie is also included inside the case (which fits insight a nice cardboard slipcover). Additionally, the cover art for the case is reversible with the newly painted design on one side and a vintage design on the flipside.
The Final Word:
Shout! Factory has given Ginger Snaps the special edition release its deserved for years, offering up the movie in a good transfer and with all of the special features from the older Canadian deluxe release and a few more supplements thrown in for good measure. The movie itself holds up well, a really creative and original work of horror with some great moments of twisted humor too.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
