Ginger Snaps
Encyclopedia
Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian werewolf film directed by John Fawcett
. The film focuses on two teenage sisters, Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle
and Emily Perkins
), who have a fascination with death
. The title is a pun
on the cookie Gingersnap. "Snap" also relates to losing one's self-control, or a quick, aggressive bite. During the film's production, the Columbine High School massacre
and the W. R. Myers High School shooting
took place, causing public controversy over the film's horror themes and the funding it received from Telefilm
.
) and Ginger Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle
) creating staged deaths for a school project plays in their classroom. Their teacher and the school's guidance counselor, Mr. Wayne, (Peter Keleghan
) demands to see them after class. Later, they smoke and play "Search and Destroy" on the school's game field, dissing people they dislike, and imagining how they may die. Trina Sinclair's (Danielle Hampton
) friend overhears Brigitte describing Trina's character and death, and tells Trina. The sisters notice this, and Ginger tells Brigitte she will "cover her" in the game. However, as Ginger is distracted, Trina pushes Brigitte into the remains of a dog, a victim of the Beast of Bailey Downs, a wild animal which has been killing pet dogs. Together, Brigitte and Ginger decide to kidnap Trina's dog that night, and imply that the Beast of Bailey Downs killed it.
They set out and find the mutilated corpse of another dog. They decide to take it with them to convince Trina it is actually her dog, but, as they pick it up, a leg comes off in Brigitte's hand. Brigitte notices blood on Ginger, thinking it is from the dog, but it proves to be from Ginger's first period. The Beast of Bailey Downs attacks, and drags her into the woods screaming. Brigitte rescues Ginger. As the sisters flee, they narrowly escape being hit by an approaching van driven by Sam (Kris Lemche
), which hits and kills the Beast. Brigitte finds Ginger's wounds are already healing and begs her to go to a hospital. Ginger refuses, as she does not want their mother (Mimi Rogers
) to find out. After a few days, Ginger begins to grow hair from her wounds, sprouts a tail and menstruates heavily. A rift forms between the sisters after Ginger smokes marijuana with Jason, and aggressively pursues him. Ignoring Brigitte's warnings, she has unprotected sex with Jason, then kills a neighbor's dog.
Frightened by what is happening to Ginger, Brigitte turns to Sam. Agreeing the Beast of Bailey Downs is a lycanthrope
, he suggests a pure silver ring may cure Ginger. Brigitte persuades Ginger to have her navel pierced
using the ring, but it is ineffective.
Later, Trina goes to the Fitzgerald house claiming Ginger kidnapped her dog. As Ginger and Trina fight, Trina slips, hitting her head on the corner of the kitchen counter, and dies. The sisters panic, narrowly avoiding their parents seeing them as they put the body in the freezer, explaining the blood to be part of another series of death photos for the school project. Brigitte later accidentally breaks off two of Trina's fingers trying to get the corpse from the freezer. As they take Trina's body to bury it, they lose the fingers. Brigitte tells Ginger she cannot go out anymore, but Ginger remains defiant.
On the pretense that Brigitte is the one "changing" instead of Ginger, they visit Sam, who suggests a monkshood solution for Ginger's illness; and informs them that the monkshood grows everywhere, however it only grows during spring. Ginger angrily tells him that they have no time, and accuses him of just wanting to have sex with Brigitte before storming out.
On Halloween, Brigitte takes her mother's monkshood, which was purchased from a craft store, and asks Sam to make the cure. Sam warns her asks if it is for Ginger. Brigitte admits the truth, and promises to go to the Greenhouse Bash party.
While trying to track down Ginger, Brigitte is attacked by Jason (whom Ginger infected through unprotected sex) and she defends herself by using the cure on him. She witnesses his immediate change in behavior, which proves the cure's success.
Ginger returns to school looking for Jason. As Brigitte arrives, a message on the PA asks her to go to the Guidance office. She knocks, and is dragged inside by Ginger who has killed the counselor. Brigitte calms Ginger down, and goes to find cleaning supplies, but returns to see the janitor with his throat torn open. He survives, though infected, until Brigitte says he should have gotten help, which incites Ginger to disembowel him with her hand.
The sisters' mother discovers Trina's corpse, and goes looking for her daughters. While she is looking for her daughters, she sees Brigitte running, and picks her up. As she drives Brigitte to the Greenhouse Bash, she tells her that she will burn the house down by letting it fill up with gas then lighting a match to erase evidence of Trina's death, and their escape. Brigitte arrives to find Sam rejecting Ginger's advances. As he approaches Ginger, she breaks his arm. In despair, Brigitte infects herself as Sam pleads with her not to. As the sisters leave, Sam knocks Ginger out with a shovel. Brigitte and Sam then take her back to the Fitzgerald house in his van, and prepare more of the cure for Ginger.
Ginger fully transforms into a werewolf on the way home and escapes the van. Afraid, and unaware she has transformed, Sam and Brigitte hide in the pantry, and he makes the solution. As he goes to find Ginger, Ginger-Wolf mutilates Sam. Brigitte picks up the dropped syringe, and follows the blood trail downstairs. She tries to drink Sam's blood in an attempt to calm Ginger-Wolf, but chokes on it. Ginger-Wolf senses Brigitte's insincerity and kills Sam in front of her, then leaps at Brigitte. As Ginger-Wolf stalks Brigitte through the basement, Brigitte returns to the room where they grew up, finding the knife that Ginger had been using to remove her tail. Brigitte holds the cure in one hand and the knife in the other. Brigitte is told to leave but refuses, only to infuriate Ginger-Wolf, resulting in Ginger-Wolf lunging at Brigitte who stabs her with the knife, instead of the cure. As the movie ends, Brigitte lays her head upon Ginger-Wolf, sobbing, listening until its breathing finally stops.
, who was initially reluctant to write the script due to the horror genre's reputation for weak characters, poor storytelling, and a negative portrayal of women. However, Fawcett convinced Walton this film would re-interpret the genre.
The two encountered trouble financing the film. They approached producer Steve Hoban, with whom they had worked before, and he agreed to produce the film. Hoban employed Ken Chubb to edit and polish the story, and after two years they were ready to seek financiers.
Motion International committed to financing and distributing the film in Canada, and Trimark agreed to be the American distributor and financier. The film seemed ready to go into production by fall of 1998, however negotiations with Trimark made the producers miss the budgeting deadline for Telefilm Canada
, the Canadian federal film funding agency. Rather than go ahead with only 60% of the funding, Hoban decided to wait a year for Telefilm's funding. During this interval Trimark dropped the film. Lions Gate Films took Trimark's place, and Unapix Entertainment agreed to distribute the DVD. The film's budget was less than $5,000,000 Canadian dollar
s.
shooting and another
school shooting in Alberta suddenly thrust the public spotlight on violent teens. The Toronto Star
's announcement that Telefilm was funding a "teen slasher movie" met with a flurry of debate and outrage in the media, which generated a remarkable amount of (adverse) publicity for such a small, independent film.
Casting took place in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle auditioned on the same day at their agency in Vancouver, reading to one-another off-camera. When their taped auditions arrived, screenwriter Karen Walton said that they were exactly as she had pictured the characters.
Interestingly, both actresses were born in the same hospital, attended the same pre-school, elementary and private schools, and are at the same agency. Perkins was twenty-two at the time and Isabelle four years younger, but it was Perkins who would be cast as the younger sister.
Thus, after six months of fruitless searching, the two leads were found on the same day. Attention then turned to the next most important characters: the drug dealer and the mother roles. Mimi Rogers readily agreed to play the mother, Pamela, saying that she liked the black humour and comic relief in the role. Robin Cook, the Canadian casting director, put forward one of her favourites, Kris Lemche
, for the role of drug dealer Sam. After seeing Kris's audition, Fawcett hired him.
On the first day of principal photography in the suburbs, all the stills photographs for the title sequence were created. The bloody, staged deaths drew a crowd and Fawcett worried about upsetting the neighbours. The girls were covered in fake blood for the shots and, at the time, a homeowner's basement served as their changing room. Each time they needed to change, someone had to distract the homeowner's four-year-old child.
The schedule was quickly so off kilter that cast and crew were turning up to shoot day scenes at 11 p.m., and shooting for a day scene in the greenhouse began at midnight. The Director of Photography solved the problem by using diffusion gel
and four eighteen kilowatt lamps which generated enough light to be seen a mile high in the sky.
The special effects proved to be a major hardship as Fawcett eschewed CGI effects, and preferred to use more traditional means of prosthetics and make-up. Consequently Isabelle had to spend up to seven hours in the makeup chair to create Ginger's transformation and a further two hours to remove them. Often covered in sticky fake blood that required Borax
and household detergent
to remove, she further endured wearing contacts that hindered her vision and teeth that meant she couldn't speak without a lisp
. The most aggravating thing was the full facial prosthetic
which gave her a permanently runny nose that she had to stop up with Q-tips.
in editing. Sound designer David McCallum of Tattersall Despite a similarly tight schedule in the sound department, the film would also be nominated for a Genie in sound editing.
's work. Critics also praised the lead actresses performances and the film's use of lycanthropy
as a metaphor for puberty. Ginger Snaps won the Special Jury Citation award at the Toronto International Film Festival
.
The film was "seemingly left for dead" upon its 2000 premier at the Toronto Film Festival but is now considered a cult film. The film was well received by critics, boasting an 87% freshness rating on Tomatometer. Critics' praise was centred on the quality of acting by the two leads, the horrific transformation reminiscent of Cronenberg
, the use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty, and the dark humour.
Critics who panned the film thought the puberty metaphor too obvious, the characters too over the top (especially the mother), and the dark humour and horror elements unbalanced. However, they did credit it as a worthy attempt and often gave it half marks on their star scales.
The film grossed C$
425,753 domestically, making it the fifth highest-grossing Canadian film between December 2000 and November 2001. Owing to a cult following, it has managed to post significant video and DVD sales. These earnings combined with moderate theatrical success abroad led to the creation of a trilogy.
Because the film links lycanthropy to menstruation and features two sisters, Ginger Snaps lends itself to a feminist critique. "By simultaneously depicting female bonds as important and fraught with difficulties, Ginger Snaps portrays the double-binds teenage girls face." and "Ginger is an embodiment of these impossible binaries: she is at once sexually attractive and monstrous, 'natural' and 'supernatural,' human and animal, 'feminine' and transgressive, a sister and a rival."
. The Toronto International Film Festival gave it a Special Jury Citation. Ginger Snaps won the first Saturn Award for best DVD release of 2002 from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Karen Walton won a Canadian Comedy award
for Pretty Funny Writing.
Ginger Snaps was nominated for Genie awards
in cinematography, editing, and sound editing.
.
having appeared in both the sequel and prequel (as different characters). But such decisions rest with Steve Hoban, senior producer of the trilogy, who made it clear there were no plans for any more Ginger Snaps films, pointing to the failure of the sequels to secure theatrical releases as the reason. Though he gave some hope to fans, stating that were there enough interest in the sequels, and the DVDs did well enough, there "was a good chance of some kind of Ginger Snaps project in the future". He went on to say that, whether it be in film or TV series form, he favoured taking it forward with the character of "Ghost" from the sequel (portrayed by Tatiana Maslany
).
, and a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, were filmed back-to-back in 2003
. Even though Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed had a limited, yet wider, release than the original, it failed dismally at the box office. Consequently Ginger Snaps Back
went direct-to-video
.
John Fawcett (director)
John Fawcett is a Canadian director of film and television. His best known films are the 2000 werewolf movie Ginger Snaps and the 2005 horror film The Dark...
. The film focuses on two teenage sisters, Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle
Katharine Isabelle
Katherine Isobel Murray , better known by her screen name Katharine Isabelle, is a Canadian actress, best known for her portrayal of Ginger in Ginger Snaps, and as Gibb in Freddy vs. Jason.-Biography:...
and Emily Perkins
Emily Perkins
Emily Jean Perkins is a Canadian actress, known best for her co-starring role as Brigitte Fitzgerald in the movie Ginger Snaps and its two sequels, Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. Since the late 1980s she has appeared in various films and television series.-Life...
), who have a fascination with death
Fascination with death
The fascination with death extends far back into human history. Throughout time, people have had obsessions with death and all things related to death and the afterlife....
. The title is a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
on the cookie Gingersnap. "Snap" also relates to losing one's self-control, or a quick, aggressive bite. During the film's production, the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
and the W. R. Myers High School shooting
W. R. Myers High School shooting
The W. R. Myers High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada. The gunman, 14-year-old Todd Cameron Smith, walked into his school and began firing at three students in a hallway, killing one student and wounding...
took place, causing public controversy over the film's horror themes and the funding it received from Telefilm
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....
.
Plot
A mother finds her dog's mutilated body strung across the lawn. Meanwhile, a slideshow of Brigitte (Emily PerkinsEmily Perkins
Emily Jean Perkins is a Canadian actress, known best for her co-starring role as Brigitte Fitzgerald in the movie Ginger Snaps and its two sequels, Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. Since the late 1980s she has appeared in various films and television series.-Life...
) and Ginger Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle
Katharine Isabelle
Katherine Isobel Murray , better known by her screen name Katharine Isabelle, is a Canadian actress, best known for her portrayal of Ginger in Ginger Snaps, and as Gibb in Freddy vs. Jason.-Biography:...
) creating staged deaths for a school project plays in their classroom. Their teacher and the school's guidance counselor, Mr. Wayne, (Peter Keleghan
Peter Keleghan
Peter Keleghan is a Canadian television actor, who has played roles in several popular Canadian comedy series.Keleghan's best-known roles have been film industry CEO Alan Roy on Made in Canada, low-IQ news anchor Jim Walcott on The Newsroom, and Ranger Gord on The Red Green Show...
) demands to see them after class. Later, they smoke and play "Search and Destroy" on the school's game field, dissing people they dislike, and imagining how they may die. Trina Sinclair's (Danielle Hampton
Danielle Hampton
Danielle Hampton is a Canadian TV, theatre and movie actress.In 2004 she starred as a regular cast member in the nationally televised soap opera Paradise Falls, playing the role of Charlene "Charlie" Piercy. In the same year she was also in the cast of Metropia playing Jordan. In 2005 she made...
) friend overhears Brigitte describing Trina's character and death, and tells Trina. The sisters notice this, and Ginger tells Brigitte she will "cover her" in the game. However, as Ginger is distracted, Trina pushes Brigitte into the remains of a dog, a victim of the Beast of Bailey Downs, a wild animal which has been killing pet dogs. Together, Brigitte and Ginger decide to kidnap Trina's dog that night, and imply that the Beast of Bailey Downs killed it.
They set out and find the mutilated corpse of another dog. They decide to take it with them to convince Trina it is actually her dog, but, as they pick it up, a leg comes off in Brigitte's hand. Brigitte notices blood on Ginger, thinking it is from the dog, but it proves to be from Ginger's first period. The Beast of Bailey Downs attacks, and drags her into the woods screaming. Brigitte rescues Ginger. As the sisters flee, they narrowly escape being hit by an approaching van driven by Sam (Kris Lemche
Kris Lemche
-Early life:Lemche was born in Brampton, Ontario to a schoolteacher mother and a father who was the proprietor of a heating business. Lemche attended the Mayfield School of Arts...
), which hits and kills the Beast. Brigitte finds Ginger's wounds are already healing and begs her to go to a hospital. Ginger refuses, as she does not want their mother (Mimi Rogers
Mimi Rogers
Mimi Rogers is an American movie actress and competitive poker player.-Early life:Rogers was born Miriam Spickler in Coral Gables, Florida, the daughter of Philip C...
) to find out. After a few days, Ginger begins to grow hair from her wounds, sprouts a tail and menstruates heavily. A rift forms between the sisters after Ginger smokes marijuana with Jason, and aggressively pursues him. Ignoring Brigitte's warnings, she has unprotected sex with Jason, then kills a neighbor's dog.
Frightened by what is happening to Ginger, Brigitte turns to Sam. Agreeing the Beast of Bailey Downs is a lycanthrope
Lycanthropy
Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...
, he suggests a pure silver ring may cure Ginger. Brigitte persuades Ginger to have her navel pierced
Navel piercing
A navel piercing is a type of body piercing. It may heal very quickly and with no problems, like an ear piercing, or may heal more like a surface piercing with the associated extended healing time. Healing usually takes less than six months, and as long as it is cleaned, it will heal nicely...
using the ring, but it is ineffective.
Later, Trina goes to the Fitzgerald house claiming Ginger kidnapped her dog. As Ginger and Trina fight, Trina slips, hitting her head on the corner of the kitchen counter, and dies. The sisters panic, narrowly avoiding their parents seeing them as they put the body in the freezer, explaining the blood to be part of another series of death photos for the school project. Brigitte later accidentally breaks off two of Trina's fingers trying to get the corpse from the freezer. As they take Trina's body to bury it, they lose the fingers. Brigitte tells Ginger she cannot go out anymore, but Ginger remains defiant.
On the pretense that Brigitte is the one "changing" instead of Ginger, they visit Sam, who suggests a monkshood solution for Ginger's illness; and informs them that the monkshood grows everywhere, however it only grows during spring. Ginger angrily tells him that they have no time, and accuses him of just wanting to have sex with Brigitte before storming out.
On Halloween, Brigitte takes her mother's monkshood, which was purchased from a craft store, and asks Sam to make the cure. Sam warns her asks if it is for Ginger. Brigitte admits the truth, and promises to go to the Greenhouse Bash party.
While trying to track down Ginger, Brigitte is attacked by Jason (whom Ginger infected through unprotected sex) and she defends herself by using the cure on him. She witnesses his immediate change in behavior, which proves the cure's success.
Ginger returns to school looking for Jason. As Brigitte arrives, a message on the PA asks her to go to the Guidance office. She knocks, and is dragged inside by Ginger who has killed the counselor. Brigitte calms Ginger down, and goes to find cleaning supplies, but returns to see the janitor with his throat torn open. He survives, though infected, until Brigitte says he should have gotten help, which incites Ginger to disembowel him with her hand.
The sisters' mother discovers Trina's corpse, and goes looking for her daughters. While she is looking for her daughters, she sees Brigitte running, and picks her up. As she drives Brigitte to the Greenhouse Bash, she tells her that she will burn the house down by letting it fill up with gas then lighting a match to erase evidence of Trina's death, and their escape. Brigitte arrives to find Sam rejecting Ginger's advances. As he approaches Ginger, she breaks his arm. In despair, Brigitte infects herself as Sam pleads with her not to. As the sisters leave, Sam knocks Ginger out with a shovel. Brigitte and Sam then take her back to the Fitzgerald house in his van, and prepare more of the cure for Ginger.
Ginger fully transforms into a werewolf on the way home and escapes the van. Afraid, and unaware she has transformed, Sam and Brigitte hide in the pantry, and he makes the solution. As he goes to find Ginger, Ginger-Wolf mutilates Sam. Brigitte picks up the dropped syringe, and follows the blood trail downstairs. She tries to drink Sam's blood in an attempt to calm Ginger-Wolf, but chokes on it. Ginger-Wolf senses Brigitte's insincerity and kills Sam in front of her, then leaps at Brigitte. As Ginger-Wolf stalks Brigitte through the basement, Brigitte returns to the room where they grew up, finding the knife that Ginger had been using to remove her tail. Brigitte holds the cure in one hand and the knife in the other. Brigitte is told to leave but refuses, only to infuriate Ginger-Wolf, resulting in Ginger-Wolf lunging at Brigitte who stabs her with the knife, instead of the cure. As the movie ends, Brigitte lays her head upon Ginger-Wolf, sobbing, listening until its breathing finally stops.
Cast
- Katharine IsabelleKatharine IsabelleKatherine Isobel Murray , better known by her screen name Katharine Isabelle, is a Canadian actress, best known for her portrayal of Ginger in Ginger Snaps, and as Gibb in Freddy vs. Jason.-Biography:...
as Ginger Fitzgerald - Emily PerkinsEmily PerkinsEmily Jean Perkins is a Canadian actress, known best for her co-starring role as Brigitte Fitzgerald in the movie Ginger Snaps and its two sequels, Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. Since the late 1980s she has appeared in various films and television series.-Life...
as Brigitte Fitzgerald - Kris LemcheKris Lemche-Early life:Lemche was born in Brampton, Ontario to a schoolteacher mother and a father who was the proprietor of a heating business. Lemche attended the Mayfield School of Arts...
as Sam McDonald - Mimi RogersMimi RogersMimi Rogers is an American movie actress and competitive poker player.-Early life:Rogers was born Miriam Spickler in Coral Gables, Florida, the daughter of Philip C...
as Pamela Fitzgerald - Jesse MossJesse Moss-Life and career:Moss was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known for his roles of Jason Wise in Final Destination 3 and Quinn McKaye on Whistler, for which Moss won a Leo Award for Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series in 2007. Moss starred in the Dear Mr...
as Jason McCardy - Danielle HamptonDanielle HamptonDanielle Hampton is a Canadian TV, theatre and movie actress.In 2004 she starred as a regular cast member in the nationally televised soap opera Paradise Falls, playing the role of Charlene "Charlie" Piercy. In the same year she was also in the cast of Metropia playing Jordan. In 2005 she made...
as Trina Sinclair - John BourgeoisJohn BourgeoisJohn Bourgeois is a bilingual actor, director and educator.-Life and career:John Bourgeois was born in Ottawa. He received his training at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and Concordia University in Montreal, where he obtained a B.A...
as Henry Fitzgerald - Peter KeleghanPeter KeleghanPeter Keleghan is a Canadian television actor, who has played roles in several popular Canadian comedy series.Keleghan's best-known roles have been film industry CEO Alan Roy on Made in Canada, low-IQ news anchor Jim Walcott on The Newsroom, and Ranger Gord on The Red Green Show...
as Mr. Wayne - Christopher Redman as Ben
- Jimmy MacInnis as Tim
- Lindsay Leese as Nurse Ferry
- Wendii Fulford as Ms. Sykes
Pre-production
In January 1995 John Fawcett "Knew that he wanted to make a metamorphosis movie and a horror film. He also knew that he wanted to work with young girls." He talked to screenwriter Karen WaltonKaren Walton
Karen Walton is a Canadian screenwriter.A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Karen Walton wrote the film Ginger Snaps, for which she won a Best Film Writing Canadian Comedy Award in 2002. She later wrote for the Canadian television series What It's Like Being Alone...
, who was initially reluctant to write the script due to the horror genre's reputation for weak characters, poor storytelling, and a negative portrayal of women. However, Fawcett convinced Walton this film would re-interpret the genre.
The two encountered trouble financing the film. They approached producer Steve Hoban, with whom they had worked before, and he agreed to produce the film. Hoban employed Ken Chubb to edit and polish the story, and after two years they were ready to seek financiers.
Motion International committed to financing and distributing the film in Canada, and Trimark agreed to be the American distributor and financier. The film seemed ready to go into production by fall of 1998, however negotiations with Trimark made the producers miss the budgeting deadline for Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....
, the Canadian federal film funding agency. Rather than go ahead with only 60% of the funding, Hoban decided to wait a year for Telefilm's funding. During this interval Trimark dropped the film. Lions Gate Films took Trimark's place, and Unapix Entertainment agreed to distribute the DVD. The film's budget was less than $5,000,000 Canadian dollar
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
s.
Casting
Actually casting the two leads met with substantial difficulty. Whilst a casting director was easily found for Los Angeles, Canadian casting directors proved to be appalled by the horror, gore, and language. When one finally agreed to pick up the film, the ColumbineColumbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
shooting and another
W. R. Myers High School shooting
The W. R. Myers High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada. The gunman, 14-year-old Todd Cameron Smith, walked into his school and began firing at three students in a hallway, killing one student and wounding...
school shooting in Alberta suddenly thrust the public spotlight on violent teens. The Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
's announcement that Telefilm was funding a "teen slasher movie" met with a flurry of debate and outrage in the media, which generated a remarkable amount of (adverse) publicity for such a small, independent film.
Casting took place in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle auditioned on the same day at their agency in Vancouver, reading to one-another off-camera. When their taped auditions arrived, screenwriter Karen Walton said that they were exactly as she had pictured the characters.
Interestingly, both actresses were born in the same hospital, attended the same pre-school, elementary and private schools, and are at the same agency. Perkins was twenty-two at the time and Isabelle four years younger, but it was Perkins who would be cast as the younger sister.
Thus, after six months of fruitless searching, the two leads were found on the same day. Attention then turned to the next most important characters: the drug dealer and the mother roles. Mimi Rogers readily agreed to play the mother, Pamela, saying that she liked the black humour and comic relief in the role. Robin Cook, the Canadian casting director, put forward one of her favourites, Kris Lemche
Kris Lemche
-Early life:Lemche was born in Brampton, Ontario to a schoolteacher mother and a father who was the proprietor of a heating business. Lemche attended the Mayfield School of Arts...
, for the role of drug dealer Sam. After seeing Kris's audition, Fawcett hired him.
Shooting
The film was shot between October 25, 1999 and December 6, 1999, lasting six weeks and two days. Three of Toronto's suburbs, Etobicoke, Brampton (Kris Lemche's home town), and Scarborough served as the suburb of Bailey Downs. Shooting outside during Toronto's winter for sixteen hours a day, six days a week meant that sicknesses would make their rounds through the cast and crew every few weeks.On the first day of principal photography in the suburbs, all the stills photographs for the title sequence were created. The bloody, staged deaths drew a crowd and Fawcett worried about upsetting the neighbours. The girls were covered in fake blood for the shots and, at the time, a homeowner's basement served as their changing room. Each time they needed to change, someone had to distract the homeowner's four-year-old child.
The schedule was quickly so off kilter that cast and crew were turning up to shoot day scenes at 11 p.m., and shooting for a day scene in the greenhouse began at midnight. The Director of Photography solved the problem by using diffusion gel
Diffusion filter
A diffusion filter is a translucent photographic filter used for a special effect. When used in front of the camera lens, a diffusion filter softens subjects and generates a dreamy haze. This can also be improvised by smearing petroleum jelly on a UV filter or shooting through a nylon stocking...
and four eighteen kilowatt lamps which generated enough light to be seen a mile high in the sky.
The special effects proved to be a major hardship as Fawcett eschewed CGI effects, and preferred to use more traditional means of prosthetics and make-up. Consequently Isabelle had to spend up to seven hours in the makeup chair to create Ginger's transformation and a further two hours to remove them. Often covered in sticky fake blood that required Borax
Borax
Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.Borax has a wide variety of uses...
and household detergent
Detergent
A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with "cleaning properties in dilute solutions." In common usage, "detergent" refers to alkylbenzenesulfonates, a family of compounds that are similar to soap but are less affected by hard water...
to remove, she further endured wearing contacts that hindered her vision and teeth that meant she couldn't speak without a lisp
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. Stereotypically, people with a lisp are unable to pronounce sibilants , and replace them with interdentals , though there are actually several kinds of lisp...
. The most aggravating thing was the full facial prosthetic
Facial prosthetic
A facial prosthetic or facial prosthesis is an artificial device used to change or adapt the outward appearance of a person's face or head....
which gave her a permanently runny nose that she had to stop up with Q-tips.
Post-production
Beginning in December 1999, Brett Sullivan, the editor, worked with John Fawcett for eight weeks to create the final cut of the film. Despite the short time for editing the film was nominated for a GenieGenie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
in editing. Sound designer David McCallum of Tattersall Despite a similarly tight schedule in the sound department, the film would also be nominated for a Genie in sound editing.
Critical reception
Ginger Snaps was well received by critics, and compared favourably with auteur David CronenbergDavid Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
's work. Critics also praised the lead actresses performances and the film's use of lycanthropy
Lycanthropy
Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...
as a metaphor for puberty. Ginger Snaps won the Special Jury Citation award at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
.
The film was "seemingly left for dead" upon its 2000 premier at the Toronto Film Festival but is now considered a cult film. The film was well received by critics, boasting an 87% freshness rating on Tomatometer. Critics' praise was centred on the quality of acting by the two leads, the horrific transformation reminiscent of Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
, the use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty, and the dark humour.
Critics who panned the film thought the puberty metaphor too obvious, the characters too over the top (especially the mother), and the dark humour and horror elements unbalanced. However, they did credit it as a worthy attempt and often gave it half marks on their star scales.
The film grossed C$
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
425,753 domestically, making it the fifth highest-grossing Canadian film between December 2000 and November 2001. Owing to a cult following, it has managed to post significant video and DVD sales. These earnings combined with moderate theatrical success abroad led to the creation of a trilogy.
Because the film links lycanthropy to menstruation and features two sisters, Ginger Snaps lends itself to a feminist critique. "By simultaneously depicting female bonds as important and fraught with difficulties, Ginger Snaps portrays the double-binds teenage girls face." and "Ginger is an embodiment of these impossible binaries: she is at once sexually attractive and monstrous, 'natural' and 'supernatural,' human and animal, 'feminine' and transgressive, a sister and a rival."
Nominations & awards
The International Horror Guild named Ginger Snaps the best film of 2001. Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema awarded it best film, best special effects, and best actress Emily PerkinsEmily Perkins
Emily Jean Perkins is a Canadian actress, known best for her co-starring role as Brigitte Fitzgerald in the movie Ginger Snaps and its two sequels, Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. Since the late 1980s she has appeared in various films and television series.-Life...
. The Toronto International Film Festival gave it a Special Jury Citation. Ginger Snaps won the first Saturn Award for best DVD release of 2002 from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Karen Walton won a Canadian Comedy award
Canadian Comedy Awards
The Canadian Comedy Awards, founded by , are an annual awards ceremony celebrating notable English speaking Canadian comedians for achievements in Live, Radio, Film, Television and Internet media over the previous year...
for Pretty Funny Writing.
Ginger Snaps was nominated for Genie awards
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
in cinematography, editing, and sound editing.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on Roadrunner RecordsRoadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records is an American record label that concentrates primarily on heavy metal bands. It is currently a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.-History:...
.
TV series
Grant Harvey, a producer on both the second and third films, thought a TV series would probably be the best way to extend the franchise, citing the idea of tracing a character "from story to story, setting to setting, telling stories about werewolves," inspired by Brendan FletcherBrendan Fletcher
Brendan Fletcher is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:Fletcher was born in Comox Valley, British Columbia and went to junior high school at Lake Trail in Courtenay, British Columbia....
having appeared in both the sequel and prequel (as different characters). But such decisions rest with Steve Hoban, senior producer of the trilogy, who made it clear there were no plans for any more Ginger Snaps films, pointing to the failure of the sequels to secure theatrical releases as the reason. Though he gave some hope to fans, stating that were there enough interest in the sequels, and the DVDs did well enough, there "was a good chance of some kind of Ginger Snaps project in the future". He went on to say that, whether it be in film or TV series form, he favoured taking it forward with the character of "Ghost" from the sequel (portrayed by Tatiana Maslany
Tatiana Maslany
-Acting career:Maslany is one of the stars of the Canadian TV series 2030 CE and is best known in her role as the character Ghost in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed...
).
Follow-ups
Based on successful DVD sales, both a sequel, Ginger Snaps II: UnleashedGinger Snaps 2: Unleashed
Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed is a 2003 Canadian horror sequel to Ginger Snaps, written by Megan Martin and directed by Brett Sullivan...
, and a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, were filmed back-to-back in 2003
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
. Even though Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed had a limited, yet wider, release than the original, it failed dismally at the box office. Consequently Ginger Snaps Back
Ginger Snaps Back
Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning is the prequel to Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed. The final part of the Ginger Snaps trilogy takes place in 19th century Canada, following the exploits of the antecedents of the Fitzgerald sisters of the two previous movies: Ginger and Brigitte , who...
went direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
.