Ginger Snaps (2001)

Melancholy, foul (but amusing) werewolf flick in the suburbs of Toronto with Katharine Isabelle

Two Goth-ish sisters in the burbs of Ontario are outcasts at their school and obsessed with death. Redhead Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is hot and blunt while Brigette (Emily Perkins) is mousey. When the former gets bit by an evident werewolf she slowly starts morphing and it changes the siblings’ lives forever. Kris Lemche and Jesse Moss are on hand as the dudes in the girls’ lives while Mimi Rogers plays the seemingly oblivious mother.

"Ginger Snaps" (2000) takes place in the Fall and there’s a gloomy pall with constant F-bombs (mostly from Ginger), but an edge of black humor. The blithe mother, for instance, is amusing. There are similarities to “The Rage: Carrie 2” (1999), but it’s nowhere near as effective. The set-up is good, but the story starts to drag from there and the suburban locations are disagreeably one-dimensional. Katharine Isabelle is the sole feminine interest, but Perkins plays a somewhat interesting character. Meanwhile Lemche’s Sam is notable as the unexpectedly gallant pot-pusher.

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes and was shot in suburbs of Toronto (Brampton, Mississauga & Markham).

GRADE: B-/C+