I remember being pretty amazed by the first Ginger Snaps movie and not disappointed in the least to hear they were going to make not just a sequel but a prequel too this year (the next, Ginger Snaps Back, apparently takes the story back into the 19th century). I wish I’d had the opportunity to see the first again before going back for more, but I guess I’ll do that when all three are available on DVD. Still, at this moment in time, this is one sequel that betters the original for me.

It’s a fairly straight rehash of the first movie in many ways, like a lot of sequels, but the tone of it is that bit darker and that bit funnier (if you get this kind of humour). Since the bulk of the movie takes place in a kind of rehab clinic, I found myself thinking of it like Girl, Interrupted made as a horror movie. In the first movie, all the “changes” that happen with Ginger were interpreted constantly as signs of her becoming a woman; here, all Brigette’s changes are interpreted as forms of acting out and drug side-effects… until the end of course.

Like I said, I found this movie funnier than the first, but that doesn’t make it any less of a scary movie. I actually found it pretty disturbing in the end, and throughout, starting with a really whacked out dream sequence Brigette has when all the rehab girls are in a kind of meditation class and they all suddenly start masturbating under the direction of one of the nurses… wacky indeed. Then there’s the brilliantly written character of Ghost, played eerily by Yet Another New Favourite Actress for me, Tatiana Maslany, and the ending turns into some kind of prequel to the Fifties movie, The Bad Seed (which I’ve recently read Eli Roth, of Cabin Fever, is getting ready to remake – here’s hoping he sees Maslany for the main part – she’s older than Patty McCormack was, but I don’t imagine they’d go so young for the remake anyway, not with Roth in charge) She’s the major factor in this movie lifting it above its predecessor, a totally unpredictable and worryingly-easy-to-like character that fills in some je-ne-sais-quoi that was absent before. Can’t wait for the prequel.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2004 at 8:12 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.