Connecting werewolves to the physical and hormonal changes brought on by puberty is nothing new, but Ginger Snaps (2000) goes more specific, binding it to menstruation and troubled social issues and the search for a personal identity that adolescent girls go through.
Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are two tightly bonded sisters a year apart in age, obsessed with death, dismissive of everyone who isn't them, suffering the trials of high school. One night Ginger is attacked by a werewolf, and unlike other movies, her change is gradual and seemingly permanent, both physically and emotionally. The more monstrous she becomes, the more radiant and confident in her own skin she becomes, and the more she grows apart from the devoted sister she starts to leave behind.
This movie feels as fresh now as it did when I first saw it around eight years ago. The characters feel true and the actors all deliver convincing and sympathetic performances. Some of the make-up effects are a little too apparent as make-up effects, such as Ginger's final look before she becomes completely wolf-like, and the wolf version itself, but since the story itself is so compelling, I found myself willing to forgive.
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