Ginger Snaps (film)
Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed. The film stars Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle as Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, two morbid teenage sisters whose relationship is tested when Ginger is attacked and bitten by an unknown animal, and then later, during the next full moon, slowly starts to transform into a werewolf. The supporting cast features Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, and Mimi Rogers.
After premiering at the Munich Fantasy Filmfest in August 2000 and screening at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival, Ginger Snaps received a limited theatrical release in May 2001. Despite modest box office receipts, the film was a critical success. It has since amassed a cult following and has been re-examined for its feminist themes. It was followed by a sequel, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, which were filmed back-to-back and both released in 2004.
Plot
A rash of dog killings strikes the quiet suburb of Bailey Downs, Ontario. Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are teenage sisters who harbor a fascination with death. As children, they formed a pact to move out of the suburb or die together by the age of 16. One night, while on their way to kidnap a dog owned by school bully Trina Sinclair, Ginger begins her first period. The scent of blood results in the girls being attacked by the creature responsible for the maulings. The creature bites Ginger and as the girls flee, the creature is run over by a van belonging to Sam Miller, a local drug dealer. Ginger foregoes going to the hospital because her wound has already healed.Following the attack, Ginger undergoes transformations that concern Brigitte. She begins behaving aggressively, hair grows from her scars, she sprouts a tail, and menstruates heavily. Ignoring Brigitte's warnings, Ginger has unprotected sex with classmate Jason McCardy. Later, she furiously beats Trina in public and kills a neighbor's dog. Brigitte seeks out Sam to obtain information on what his van struck, and they agree that Ginger was attacked by a werewolf and is transforming into one. After a silver navel piercing proves ineffective as a remedy, Sam suggests infusing an extract of monkshood, also known as wolfsbane, a perennial plant often referred to in lycanthrope folklore.
Trina appears at the Fitzgerald home and accuses Ginger of kidnapping her dog. As Ginger and Trina struggle, Trina dies accidentally when she slips and strikes her head upon the kitchen counter. The sisters hide the body in a freezer. Brigitte accidentally breaks off two of Trina's fingers while removing her body to bury it, and the fingers are misplaced. On Halloween, Brigitte brings monkshood to Sam and he creates an extract of the herb. Brigitte is attacked by an infected Jason, and defends herself by using the monkshood syringe on him. His behavior suddenly changes, proving that the cure works. At school, she discovers Ginger's murder of the counselor and witnesses her killing the janitor. Ginger discloses her intent to target Sam next at the Greenhouse Bash, a Halloween party hosted by him.
The girls' mother discovers the fingers and Trina's corpse. She drives Brigitte to the Greenhouse Bash, telling her that she will erase the evidence of Trina's death by burning their house down. Brigitte arrives to find Sam fending off a nearly-turned Ginger. Brigitte wounds Ginger's and her own palm and clasps their hands together, infecting herself with Ginger's blood. She convinces Ginger of her loyalty and willingness to help her. As the sisters leave, Brigitte decides to abandon her mother. As Ginger feels her transformation approaching, Sam knocks her unconscious with a shovel. They take Ginger back home to prepare more of the cure for her.
On the way, Ginger fully transforms into a werewolf and escapes from the van. Sam and Brigitte hide in the pantry as Sam makes the cure. When he goes to find Ginger, she mutilates him. After finding Sam, injured and bloody, Brigitte tries to save him by drinking his blood to calm Ginger, but is unable to go through with it. Ginger senses Brigitte's insincerity and kills Sam. As Ginger chases Brigitte, Brigitte returns to the room where they grew up. Brigitte defends herself while holding the syringe in one hand and a knife in the other. Ginger lunges at Brigitte and into the knife, fatally wounding herself. Brigitte lays her head upon her dying sister's chest and weeps.
Cast
Nick Nolan portrayed both the initial werewolf and the "Gingerwolf", the werewolf which Ginger becomes.Production
Development
, a fan of Monster movies and David Cronenberg, was inspired to write a story about the relationship between two female protagonists during horrific events after watching Heavenly Creatures. Fawcett stated that "I knew that I wanted to make a metamorphosis movie and a horror film. I also knew that I wanted to work with girls". In January 1995, he talked to screenwriter Karen Walton, 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 the film would reinterpret the genre.In 1996, Walton met with Vincenzo Natali, who was writing Cube, at the Canadian Film Centre and she later stated that Ginger Snaps and Cube were "cross-pollinating each other". Natali and Walton previously worked together on Elevated. Walton viewed most werewolf films as the same and that while An American Werewolf in London was her favourite werewolf film, "it was still two white dudes grappling with the beast inside of them".
Fawcett and Walton 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.
The $4.5 million budget for the film came from public and private sourcing. Telefilm Canada contributed $1.25 million and the Canadian Television Fund contributed a similar amount. Motion International committed to co-financing and Canadian distribution, and Trimark Pictures agreed to be the co-financier, U.S. distributor, and international sales agent. Hoban formed Copperheart Entertainment in 1999, and Ginger Snaps was the first project it supported. Production seemed ready to go into production by fall of 1998; however, negotiations with Trimark caused the producers to miss the budgeting deadline for Telefilm. 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. Lionsgate Films, who Trimark would end up merging with in 2000, took Trimark's place. Wendy Lill, the New Democratic Party's federal culture critic, was critical of Telefilm's financial support of the film due to its violence.
Casting
Six casting directors in Toronto, who chose to remain anonymous, announced they would boycott Ginger Snaps due to their worries about it depicting the murder of high school students after multiple school shootings in the United States and Canada. In 2021, Fawcett revealed that Scarlett Johansson was originally offered the role of Brigitte, but her mother did not want her involved after reading a National Post article about a boycott of the film by casting directors in Canada.Auditions were held in Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle, who read for the parts together, were selected to play the Fitzgerald sisters. The actresses were noted for their similar backgrounds as both were born in the same hospital, attended the same school, and appeared in episodes of The X-Files. Perkins, who cut her hair before confirmation of her casting, wore a wig during the film. Isabelle credits the casting director boycott for her casting as independent and low-budget Canadian films would normally hire locally.
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.
Lucy Lawless, who Fawcett directed in several episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, appears in the film in an uncredited cameo as a school announcer and is thanked in the credits alongside Rob Tapert.
Shooting
took place between October 25 and December 6, 1999. Thom Best, the film's cinematagrapher, previously worked with Fawcett on Half Nelson and The Boys Club. Interior scenes were shot in a studio warehouse in Toronto. The Bailey Downs High scenes were filmed at a school in Scarborough. The exterior of the Fitzgeralds' house was shot at a home in Brampton, and a park in Meadowvale Village in Mississauga was also used. Shooting outside during Toronto's winter for sixteen hours a day, six days a week meant that sickness would make its rounds through the cast and crew every few weeks.On the first day of shooting in the suburbs, all the still 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.
Long shooting days pushed the earliest possible start later each day until the scenes written for day were being shot after late into the night. Director of photography Thom Best 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.
Fawcett stated that Ginger's wolf transformation was meant to be similar to Seth Brundle's transformation in The Fly.
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 metamorphosis 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 could not 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 with cotton swabs.
Industrial metal and Gothic rock are used in the film's soundtrack and appear diegetically in Sam's van.
Fawcett requested Brett Sullivan to consistently trim down scenes and produce a tightly paced film.