Showing posts with label puberty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puberty. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Gingersnaps (2000)


Gingersnaps was directed by John Fawcett and stars Emily Perkins and Katherine Isabelle.

I really like this movie. It's witty, and really smart in how it uses lycanthrophy as a metaphor for the Other and for Change. The onset of Ginger's werewolf-ism is presented as a parallel for the onset of puberty. I really wish I had seen this one first, rather than the terrible prequel Ginger Snaps Back (reviewed earlier).

The movie centers mostly on the visceral horror of lycanthrophy/puberty, of watching one's self change and being unable to halt the process. Ginger finds her transformation into a wolf bewildering, and the upheaval causes believable tension between Ginger and her sister Brigitte.

What I found most interesting, however, is the fact that, in the end, Ginger does not return to human form. She is a werewolf, irredeemably, and the connotation is that Brigitte is next. The change is unavoidable for Brigitte, and is something she must now face alone.

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Next up: Cursed (2005)