Ginger Snaps Details

In this highly sophisticated and disturbing Canadian horror movie, director John Fawcett transcends the banality of the werewolf formula with verve, well-paced action and genuine terror. When teenager Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is attacked by the legendary “Beast of Bailey Downs”, she goes from being a death-obsessed Goth freak to a sexually charged dominatrix. Too terrified to confide in their flaky, home-loving mother (Mimi Rogers on fine form) and not wanting to go to the police when Ginger's lust turns murderously savage, her younger sister, Brigitte (Emily Perkins), approaches an enigmatic drug dealer (Kris Lemche) for a cure. Fawcett expertly puts the werewolf myth into the tortured adolescence melting pot and keeps the blood spilling, the suspense high and the humour engaging as this wonderfully crafted chiller hurtles towards a sustained, lyrical and powerfully bleak climax.

Engaging, feminist addition to an overworked genre, though it does not escape from the obligatory overkill of contemporary horror.