Ginger Snaps. 2000. Canada. Directed by John Fawcett. Written by Karen Walton and John Fawcett. With Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, and Mimi Rogers. DCP courtesy of TIFF. 108 min.
Directed by John Fawcett and cowritten by Karen Walton, Ginger Snaps, a cult classic from Canada, is a supernatural coming-of-age story centering around two misfit sisters, 15-year-old Brigitte Fitzgerald and almost 16-year-old Ginger, who are obsessed with dying and bound by a childhood pact to stay together forever. Their loathing of mind-numbing suburban existence quickly changes to a survival-first mindset when Ginger is savagely attacked by a werewolf while walking at night in the woods. She survives and her external wounds heal, but something is clearly not the same. Ginger Snaps cleverly turns Ginger’s monthly werewolf cravings into a transgressive metaphor about the strange and mysterious horror of becoming a woman.