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Created Feb 01, 2009 02:04AM PST • Edited Feb 01, 2009 02:04AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   When it comes to horror in the early 21st century, John Fawcett’s fierce “Ginger Snaps” might surprisingly stand at the top of the heap – arguably superior to some of the best genre films of recent years, like Greg McLean’s “Wolf Creek” or Alexandre Aja’s “Haute Tension.” In the annals of feminist-tinged horror, the film is another uber-triumph, having its titular character inflicted with a curse turning her into a werewolf at night at the same time she begins to menstruate, the end result being just as canny a film about becoming an adult as it is horrific as a no-holds-barred horror flick pleasing in a way that even Neil Marshall’s werewolf-themed “Dog Soldiers” cannot claim to be. Bloody, frightening and inventive, the film is a true horror gem, the kind that sneaks under the door every once in a while and is naturally at its most intensely effective when viewed in the dead of night.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Emily Perkins (1990’s “It”) is excellent in the leading role, a different kind of protagonist whose interest in the morbid and gruesome dissipates when her own sister begins to go through drastic changes following the two’s encounter with an apparent werewolf. As a socially inept young girl who must find help (if there is any) to change her sister back to the way she was, Perkins grows on the viewer and believably becomes the character. As Ginger, Katharine Isabelle believably becomes a sexually charged girl, following her werewolf encounter, during the day and, courtesy of some excellent make-up, a menacing werewolf by night. Beyond these two, supporting parts are few and far between, though everyone else in the cast delivers reasonably with what they’ve got.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    “Ginger Snaps”’ low budget shows in places, though the strength of the script and the excellent work Fawcett and cinematographer Thom Best do with the camera make this a complete non-issue.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.6

    The violence is restrained in some places, brutal in others, while Ginger’s intensified sexual appetite make for the sporadic bits of tittilation. Par the course, the language of the characters grows saltier the more minutes tick by.

17. Sex Titillating 2.0

18. Violence Brutal 3.4

19. Rudeness Salty 2.3

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.1

    Supernatural all the way through, which is to be expected considering this is a movie about werewolves. Regardless, the palpably, eerily scary treatment of the subject helps restore some authenticity, if only because the film is of such spectacular quality.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 3.1

23. Biological Supernatural 3.1

24. Physical Supernatural 3.1