4. Ginger Snaps
The modern werewolf film has not been slow to throw in a few "that time of the month" references, but none have really explored the puberty parallel with anything like the commitment of Ginger Snaps. Writer-director John Fawcett and co-writer Karen Walton (currently working together on the Fawcett created Canadian clone drama Orphan Black) focus their film entirely on teen protagonist Ginger's metamorphosis as she endures changes to her body and mind, hair sprouting from new places, bleeding where she hadn't before and some serious mood swings. At the heart of the film is the relationship between sisters Ginger (American Mary's Katharine Isabelle) and Bridgette (Emily Perkins), a pair of morbid outsiders who pass the time staging death scenes for photo projects and, perhaps as a result, have nobody that really understands them but each other. The relationship dynamic between the sisters is much more developed and complex than is typical in a teen horror, with timid Bridgette and more extrovert Ginger both relying on the other as a crutch at different times and both holding the other back from a life outside. Like Shivers, Ginger Snaps was public funded (by Telefilm Canada, the replacement for the CFDC). Also like Cronenberg's best work, Ginger Snaps has a strong focus on the bodily metamorphosis of its character, a slow but permanent change rather than the swinging back and forth at a full moon typical of the werewolf genre, proving consistently creative and disturbing as Ginger becomes increasingly freakish. Equally unusual for anyone who recalls the dire An American Werewolf In Paris and the just plain odd The Howling III: The Marsupials, Ginger Snaps is a darkly comic werewolf picture whose sequels remained at least interesting and fresh.