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Ginger Snaps



cast :

Emily Perkins, Katherine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mini Rogers

crew :

Directed by: John Fawcett
Written by: Karen Walton, John Fawcett
Produced by: Karen Lee Hall, Steven Hoban
DOP: Thom Best
Editor: Brett Sullivan
Music Score by: Mike Shields

release date :

2000

In the framework of mainstream horror films, women play the victim who is either sacrificed to the killer for being weak or to the narrative for wanting to know more. Women who kill, or help killers, in horror films often find themselves punished; a defence kill may be rewarded but for a woman to kill for pleasure or out of anger will not go unnoticed. The typical depiction of women in horror heralds them either as tomboys or sex addicts and because these stereotypes still exist, the horizon for feminists studying horror is disheartening. Questions arise regarding the character motivation of the female in horror; whether they are used to demonstrate the horrific spectacle of suffering and torture for the sadistic male viewer or whether they can aid narrative progression by offering independent investigation through assertiveness, curiousness, and intelligence.


However, there will always be the films that go against these female stereotypes, especially away from the sub-genre of the slasher film; one example is John Fawcett's ‘Ginger Snaps’ (2000). ‘Ginger Snaps’ is a story about the Fitzgerald sisters, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and is the first instalment in a trilogy along with ‘Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning’ (2004) and ‘Ginger Snaps: Unleashed’ (2004). The girls have a macabre sense of humour and will do anything to resist conforming to the social norm as they hover on the brink of womanhood and refuse to take the next step. For a school project on life in their area, the girl’s mock-up suicide and homicide scenes and take photographs; just another f-you to their classmates, their teachers, and their lives. However, sixteen-year-old Ginger cannot delay the process of adolescence any longer and when the sisters are out one night, she realises that she has “got the curse” - their euphemism for starting their period. Moments later, the girls are attacked by the Beast of Bailey Downs, a creature that has recently been attacking the neighbourhood dogs, and Ginger is dragged off into the woods. When she returns covered in scratches, she sees that her previously deep wounds have already started to heal. Over the next couple of days Ginger starts to transform; at first her changes eerily parallel those of puberty but she starts to lose control. It seems only fitting that Ginger, who would “kill herself to be different,” would go through puberty as a werewolf.


There is a lot of existing criticism surrounding the use of the werewolf metaphor for puberty in ‘Ginger Snaps’ which is considered to be a revision of early hormonal teen-horrors such as ‘I was a Teenage Werewolf’ (1957) and ‘An American Werewolf in London’ (1981) which represent puberty and sexual experience as a metamorphosis from teenager to a monster. However, the film's menstruation metaphors even draw parallels with some fairy tales; the story of little red riding hood is often used as a metaphor for pubescent change as the colour of her clothes and her journey through the woods outlines the progression from innocent young girl to mature young woman. Female protagonists in horror must prove themselves by thwarting gender roles and expectations and however unfortunate this is, it ultimately leads to a disassociation to those around them. This maturation arc compliments the horror film in which 'trust no-one' style-storylines evolve, especially when there is a human killer, rather than a physical monster. The type of films that require this maturation focus on women helping themselves, they must realise their inner strength.


Set in Canada, the girls are outcasts, and their high-school lives are full of peer conflict, an example of which can be seen in the girls' hockey class where the class bitch, Trina (Danielle Hampton), pushes Brigitte into the rotting corpse of a dog on the pitch and Ginger sticks up for her by starting a fight with Trina. Ginger's rapid sexual maturity invites female rivalry and jealousy between the sisters and the sexual anxiety in Brigitte arises once we see how sexuality has transformed her sister into a 'monster'. However, even though a lot of existing criticism focuses on Ginger's transformation I think it is Brigitte who fulfils the maturation arc. Described as intelligent yet sullen, awkward and unusual, Brigitte lives in Ginger's shadow and would “rather die” than experience the abandonment that she expects to come with Ginger's newfound interest in boys. As womanhood catches up with Ginger, Brigitte is disgusted by the male attention Ginger attracts and the sexualised world that she inhabits after they vowed to never be average. Brigitte befriends the local drug dealer, Sam (Kris Lemche), and sees him as nothing more than a friend but the attention he pays to Brigitte angers Ginger which hints that fragments of the old protective Ginger are still alive inside the monster. However, it could also be read that Ginger thinks she deserves the male attention and that it should not be wasted on her younger sister. Although the relationship between the girls is akin to that of twins, it is the age difference that characterises the conflict and jealousy between them because it places them either side of the pubescent change. By interpreting Ginger's sexual development in this negative way, Brigitte reveals her feelings of rejection and alienation that have comes as a direct result of Ginger's sexual advancement. As the girls shop for sanitary products at the supermarket Ginger complains of cramps and other menstruation related issues which define the differing sexual experiences between them and shows how the girls' tight bond can be dismantled over the course of a few days. Ginger's acceptance of classmate Jason McCardy's (Jesse Moss) understanding of menstruation confirms Ginger's betrayal for Brigitte and proves that heterosexual involvement comes at the expense of female friendships. Some critics have used this as evidence in queer theory arguments in regards to ‘Ginger Snaps’, confirmed by Brigitte's increasing jealousy of Ginger's sexuality throughout the film.


The girls mature from a pact that united them against life into female rivals as their kinship is strained. Even their mother, Pamela (Mimi Rogers), interprets Brigitte's isolation from Ginger as envy and when the argument is brought up between the girls Ginger claims that the only monster she can see has "little green eyes" which implies that everybody believes Brigitte to be jealous of Ginger. However, Brigitte's character can just be read as a typical little sister who envies her elder sister or like a girl who is in awe at their best friend. Brigitte studies the razors that Ginger has used to shave off her fur and reads up on cures and antidotes with Sam in an attempt to save Ginger as she carries on wreaking havoc across the town – even spreading the 'disease' to Jason McCardy after having a sexual relationship with him, hinting at a metaphor for sexually transmitted infections (although surely that's best left to vampire flicks?)


Throughout the film, Brigitte disassociates herself from Ginger and she is forced to make a distinction between 'Ginger as sister' and 'Ginger as monster' in order to survive.


Brigitte is an alternative to the 'final girl' because she is a young woman who refuses to be passive, yet she cannot be approved by the narrative as a female because she ultimately loses our sympathy. The 'final girl' refers to the tradition that the last person to be left alive in a horror film is usually a sexually unavailable, teenage girl who has shared a history with the killer. The girls are depicted as strong and resourceful protagonists and who survive the onslaught and live to tell the tale – unlike their sexually advanced peers. However, in becoming the 'final girl' the young women must remain to be seen as girls and identify with the masculine, resorting to phallic appropriation when killing the murderer. However, with common sense and a strong mind, Brigitte's character has made feminist horror critics rethink some of their framework and although she is punished by the narrative, it is clear that Brigitte needed to disassociate herself from Ginger in order to mature into a woman.


On the surface ‘Ginger Snaps’ can be seen as a typical teen horror; stereotypes are represented by most of the cast and the high-school setting tinged with teenage rebellion doesn't scream originality but the outcast girls – and their naïve and seemingly unstable mother – and the comment that is being made regarding female kinship in the film is one similar to that of ‘The Craft’ (1996) and Ginger's transformation away from Brigitte is heart-breaking to watch.


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Country: Canada
Budget: £2,500,000 aprox.
Length:108mins


Filmography:
‘The Craft’, 1996, Andrew Fleming, Columbia Pictures Corporation
‘Ginger Snaps: Unleashed’, 2004, Brett Sullivan, 49th Parallel Productions
‘Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning’, 2004, Grant Harvey, 49 Films
‘An American Werewolf in London’, 1981, John Landis, American Werewolf Inc.
‘I was a Teenage Werewolf’, 1957, Gene Fowler Jr., Sunset Productions


Pub/2008


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