Monday, June 13, 2005

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning



--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: Ginger and Brigitte are suddenly back in the 19th century, racing around the woods, avoiding wolves (and trying to avoid traps). Soon they find themselves sequestered into a strange trader's fort that is trying to fend off wolfmen that loom outside their walls. Ginger gets bit by a child-werewolf and is slowly transforming. Both her and Brigitte keep getting visions of their 20th century lives as well. The sisters must fend off the creepy 19th century traders on the inside of the fort as well as the creepy wolf-creatures from the outside of the fort.

Scariness factor: This was the weakest of the three Ginger Snaps movies and was more boring and leisurely than scary.

Originality: Basically, it seemed that they couldn't figure out where to go from AFTER the second sequel, so they decided to do a prequel that is basically the original movie but set in the 19th century.

Complaints: What the hell did this movie have anything to do with anything?!? I thought at some point we would see how this related to the Brigitte and Ginger of the 20th century, but this never occurred. The girls were instead plunked into the 19th century with the same personalities and the same werewolfish quandary, and this fact was NEVER EXPLAINED or connected to the 20th century girls (there SEEMED to be a few attempts where they see visions of their 20th century-selves, but this never goes anywhere).

High Points: Their weren't really any this time, other than the fact that the two main characters are thankfully cute and pleasing to the eye (and as B-movies go, these are of much higher quality than typical B-movies), so I am always willing to suffer through this series without TOO much complaint.

Overall: This was a pale shadow of the original, and a dimmer shadow of the 2nd in the series. It really didn't link into the other two in any sort of coherent way--as a prequel, it didn't really make me go "Ah, now I see how all the events of the first Ginger Snaps came to play out the way they did," and to me, that's sorta what a prequel is supposed to do. The pacing was sluggish at best, there were not ANY scary moments, and it was completely sucked dry of all the interesting feminist and fairy-tailish themes of the original. Definitely not worth checking out, unless you're lame like me and dedicated to seeing all of the Ginger Snaps series, in which case, carry on.

Grade: D+

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2 Comments:

At 9:40 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Though I agree that it was def. the weakest of the series, i don't think I disliked it as much as you ;) I didn't think it was supposed to directly tie into the 20th century. I took it more as turning the series into not just an isolated event, but a legend. That the "spirits" of the two sisters were cursed (pun intended) to repeat the events of the first (and third) ones and had been doing so for century upon century. That there's a tie to the werewolf legend (and maybe I'm making too much assumption here) but that, as long as werewolves existed, these two sisters have been reliving these events, through different settings and times. then again, I'm probably just reading too much into what *is* the weakest film of the series.

 
At 10:56 PM, Blogger SafeTinspector said...

Mmmm.... ginger snaps are, by far, the BEST yummy cookie available on the open market today.
I wish I had a plate full of ginger snaps and a big glass of milk right now.

 

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