I LIKE MOVIES

In an attempt to stay productive I am going to try to review the movies I watch. And I watch a lot of movies. I haven't come up with a format yet, so let's see how this goes.



I'm no werewolf movie historian, but I've seen my fair share. What was at once a metaphor of a man's inner rage, the werewolf at some point also became the horror movie symbol for puberty. Whether it was I Was A Teenage Werewolf in the 50s or Teen Wolf in the 80s, it was hard to avoid the parallels between lycanthropy and puberty. New urges! New unexpected growths! New body hair! And in Michael J. Fox's case, new slam dunk skills! This is the category in which we find Ginger Snaps.

Ginger Snaps is better than its name or poster let on. In it, two late-blooming, social outcast sisters named Brigitte and Ginger are faced with all the problems of being 15 and 16 respectively. High school's social cliques, underachieving hormones, oblivious parents, and the fear of growing apart are quickly becoming concerns for these two almost weirdly close sisters. Oh yeah, and some sort of unidentified beast has been eating the neighborhood's dogs. About four seconds after Ginger is stricken with "the curse" of womanhood she is attacked by the monster. It's true: Their menstruation attracts bears. Or in this case, werewolves.

Their menstruation attracts bears

Ginger starts turning into a werewolf over the next few weeks, getting interested in boys, drugs, sass-mouthing her mom, and eating the neighbor's pooch. Meanwhile her sister tries to find a way to cure her. Their bond is well established very early in the movie so you actually care for both of them getting out of this predicament.

One thing this movie does really well is how it handles the high school stereotypes. The stereotypes are there for sure: the snooty pack of girls, the "stoners," the "freaks." But they don't tip too far overboard into cliche or jokey territory. You don't have the nerd with the tape on his glasses or the guy in his varsity jacket always carrying a football.

Definitely worth checking out if you're in the mood for a fairly unique approach to the werewolf genre. Also this movie gets points for using all practical effects as far as I could tell.

I don't have a rating system, like stars or thumbs up . . . so this one gets, I don't know . . . 8 drops of werewolf period blood out of 11.

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