Dir. Brett Sullivan, 2003, Canada, 94 mins
Cast: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Tatiana Maslany, Janet Kidder, Eric Johnson, Pascale Hutton
With Ginger dead, it's now Brigitte's turn to fight the burning desire to grow a snout and devour human flesh.
The second of three movies involving girls turning into werewolves, Unleashed doesn't focus so much on the deceased Ginger as it does on little sister Brigitte, so really it should be called Brigitte Snaps. The original Ginger Snaps movie won a cult following for its unique female view on lycanthrope and the effect it had when one sister got infected and the other searched for a cure. Sure, the gore was cool, but it was the relationship between Brigitte and Ginger that raised it above its low-budget Canadian horror roots.
The sequel sees Brigitte alone and hooked on Monkshood, the herbal remedy she uses to remain in human form. Unfortunately it's not a cure, just a time delay, and things are made even worse when she's taken to a mental hospital because the authorities mistake her for a suicidal drug addict. With no Monkshood it's only a matter of time before she changes and kills everyone. But something is following her in the dark and has a craving of its own...
Director Sullivan (editor of the first Ginger Snaps) never quite recreates the drama of the first film, relying on a heavy plot that sees character development fall by the wayside. He's so busy trying to make everything interesting, he forgets that a simple scene with two people talking can be just as effective as running and screaming. Scenes start and finish as quickly as possible so you don't have time to question the plot holes, and you're left feeling rather uninvolved (it's never made clear who's chasing Brigitte - presumably it's the idiot jock from the first movie). And on occassion it all looks rather straight-to-videoish, which probably explains its lack of theatrical release in the states.
Ginger has a cameo role as a ghost but you get the feeling she was an afterthought, and Sullivan plain forgets about her about halfway through the movie.
So that's the bad stuff. This isn't a total waste of time and as far as B-movie horror sequels go, it isn't half bad. Ghost (Brigitte's singular friend at the hospital) is an original creation, being both creepy and funny, sympathetic and evil, and towards the end her story starts to eclipse Brigitte with a clever Little Red Riding Hood riff. There are some good scares and if the script is slightly creaky, Perkins and Maslany give it 110%. The ending is even darker than the first movie - something not to be sniffed at in a world of 12A's and growing knee-jerk censorship (thank you Janet Jackson).
Like the Matrix sequels, Ginger Snaps Back was shot at the same time as Unleashed, and will be released in the autumn 2004 - a prequel set in the 19th Century with both Ginger and Brigitte as the same characters in a past life who take refuge in a fort.
Ginger Snaps Unleashed is an odd beast. It's a superior monster movie than its predecessor, but packs a weaker emotional punch. Perhaps with a bigger budget and Fawcett back at the helm, this could have been exceptional. As it is, it's merely acceptable.
Tom Ramsbottom
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