Post by Quorthon on Oct 28, 2005 12:59:44 GMT -5
Ginger Snaps Back
Werewolf Horror
2004
Color
MPAA Rating: R
Directed by: Grant Harvey
USA
Ginger Snaps was a werewolf horror flick made for teenagers. It had whiney, snotty, growing-up-is-hell teenagers in the cast. Teenage girls, no less. You know, because women really sell horror flicks because there's always a chance (and hope of some of us horror fanatics) for some nudity. Am I wrong? Hardly. We horror fanatics are a bunch of pigs, usually. It's part of our charm. And here we have a movie with very little charm. The sequel/prequel to the original Ginger Snaps, apparently. Now, I'll admit, I don't remember a whole helluva lot about that first movie, so exactly how this one ties in, other than starring the same two chicks again, is beyond me.
Well then. The film follows two teenage girls (again) as they wander through the desolate forrested regions of America's yet-unraped beautiful western (The Rockies) mountains (presumably, could be Appalacia) until they eventually stumble upon a helpful, brave, tall, sexy Indian hunter-man. You see, this film takes place in ye olden days--the 1800's--when America was first dealing out some serious growing pains on North America. Eventually, they come across a fort defended by early Americans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Indians apparently. Quite the conglomerate we've got here. At any rate, they're being all terrorized by "evil" from out in the woods. I'll save you the suspense of finding out the obvious--it's werewolves. Well, along the movie wanders until one girl is bitten and "turning," and the other girl is all worried about her and they just don't trust all the big lonely men in the fort. Oh, and why were the girls wandering around all by themselves in the forbidding wilderness? Apparently their parents are totally dead.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Good:
--The atmosphere is fantastic--really, it's the high point of the film.
--The sets are quite good as well, very nice.
--Interesting idea added that leeches can be used to detect if someone's turning into a werewolf.
Didn’t Hurt It, Didn’t Help:
--We get to see one chick briefly nude, but also angled so we only see her from the back. Let's see... we've got a film that's sold on the premise that it's "sexy teenage girls that become werewolves." Seems they're not following through on the hinted sexiness.
--The acting of several characters is pretty good, but with so many accents flying left and right, it's almost like the filmmakers really didn't know what kind of people would actually inhabit a post-colonial American fort. So they just collected an even mish-mash of accents together.
--The werewolves look pretty cool, with occasional excellent effects or design, but aren't anything really new or special. Overlong front legs give them an awkward appearance.
--Average gore and violence.
The Bad:
--The acting from our heroic young ladies is really out of place and zig-zags from modern youthful arrogance to ye olde American dialects.
--I found most of the characters to be generally unlikable.
--Didn't see any relation to the previous film(s)--keeping in mind I've only seen one of them. The film seems like they just wanted to keep the series going and felt that the best way to do it was just to place the girls in a different time period.
The Ugly:
--The half-werewolf boy.
Memorable Scene:
--I guess, the climax when we finally get to see a lot of werewolves. Many of which are being killed off pretty easily...
Acting: 5/10
Story: 6/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Character Development: 6/10
Special Effects/Make-up: 8/10
Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 (the nude back of one girl)
Violence/Gore: 6/10
Sets/Backgrounds: 9/10
Dialogue: 6/10
Music: 7/10
Writing: 5/10
Direction: 7/10 (for that atmosphere and cinematography--the characters? Blah.)
Cheesiness: 3/10
Crappiness: 1/10
Overall: 5/10
So there you have it. This film is really nothing special or new and it's saving grace is the excellent atmosphere and set design. Sure, the werewolves look pretty cool, but again, they're nothing special. As much as I love the werewolf-horror genre, I think for the most part, it's been done to death. Dog Soldiers was the last film in this genre that I found to have any originality. This one is basically the same as the first Ginger Snaps with obvious "teenage troubles" replaced with "lonely mountain soldier" troubles. For fans of the genre and teenagers looking for mild teenage horror that isn't a Scream/Ring clone.
Werewolf Horror
2004
Color
MPAA Rating: R
Directed by: Grant Harvey
USA
Ginger Snaps was a werewolf horror flick made for teenagers. It had whiney, snotty, growing-up-is-hell teenagers in the cast. Teenage girls, no less. You know, because women really sell horror flicks because there's always a chance (and hope of some of us horror fanatics) for some nudity. Am I wrong? Hardly. We horror fanatics are a bunch of pigs, usually. It's part of our charm. And here we have a movie with very little charm. The sequel/prequel to the original Ginger Snaps, apparently. Now, I'll admit, I don't remember a whole helluva lot about that first movie, so exactly how this one ties in, other than starring the same two chicks again, is beyond me.
Well then. The film follows two teenage girls (again) as they wander through the desolate forrested regions of America's yet-unraped beautiful western (The Rockies) mountains (presumably, could be Appalacia) until they eventually stumble upon a helpful, brave, tall, sexy Indian hunter-man. You see, this film takes place in ye olden days--the 1800's--when America was first dealing out some serious growing pains on North America. Eventually, they come across a fort defended by early Americans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Indians apparently. Quite the conglomerate we've got here. At any rate, they're being all terrorized by "evil" from out in the woods. I'll save you the suspense of finding out the obvious--it's werewolves. Well, along the movie wanders until one girl is bitten and "turning," and the other girl is all worried about her and they just don't trust all the big lonely men in the fort. Oh, and why were the girls wandering around all by themselves in the forbidding wilderness? Apparently their parents are totally dead.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Good:
--The atmosphere is fantastic--really, it's the high point of the film.
--The sets are quite good as well, very nice.
--Interesting idea added that leeches can be used to detect if someone's turning into a werewolf.
Didn’t Hurt It, Didn’t Help:
--We get to see one chick briefly nude, but also angled so we only see her from the back. Let's see... we've got a film that's sold on the premise that it's "sexy teenage girls that become werewolves." Seems they're not following through on the hinted sexiness.
--The acting of several characters is pretty good, but with so many accents flying left and right, it's almost like the filmmakers really didn't know what kind of people would actually inhabit a post-colonial American fort. So they just collected an even mish-mash of accents together.
--The werewolves look pretty cool, with occasional excellent effects or design, but aren't anything really new or special. Overlong front legs give them an awkward appearance.
--Average gore and violence.
The Bad:
--The acting from our heroic young ladies is really out of place and zig-zags from modern youthful arrogance to ye olde American dialects.
--I found most of the characters to be generally unlikable.
--Didn't see any relation to the previous film(s)--keeping in mind I've only seen one of them. The film seems like they just wanted to keep the series going and felt that the best way to do it was just to place the girls in a different time period.
The Ugly:
--The half-werewolf boy.
Memorable Scene:
--I guess, the climax when we finally get to see a lot of werewolves. Many of which are being killed off pretty easily...
Acting: 5/10
Story: 6/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Character Development: 6/10
Special Effects/Make-up: 8/10
Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 (the nude back of one girl)
Violence/Gore: 6/10
Sets/Backgrounds: 9/10
Dialogue: 6/10
Music: 7/10
Writing: 5/10
Direction: 7/10 (for that atmosphere and cinematography--the characters? Blah.)
Cheesiness: 3/10
Crappiness: 1/10
Overall: 5/10
So there you have it. This film is really nothing special or new and it's saving grace is the excellent atmosphere and set design. Sure, the werewolves look pretty cool, but again, they're nothing special. As much as I love the werewolf-horror genre, I think for the most part, it's been done to death. Dog Soldiers was the last film in this genre that I found to have any originality. This one is basically the same as the first Ginger Snaps with obvious "teenage troubles" replaced with "lonely mountain soldier" troubles. For fans of the genre and teenagers looking for mild teenage horror that isn't a Scream/Ring clone.
