"Ginger Snaps: Unleashed" review

Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004)

Directed by Brett Sullivan
Writing credits Karen Walton Megan Martin

Emily Perkins .... Brigitte
Tatiana Maslany .... Ghost
Brendan Fletcher .... Jeremy
Katharine Isabelle .... Ginger

Brigitte, (Emily Perkins), has werewolf issues. She needs to spend some time in a mental hospital so that she can sort them out. An annoying little girl who calls herself "Ghost" decides to give Brigitte a helping hand. Ghost lives in a comic book-fueled fantasy world and is attracted to the mysterious, dark Brigitte. Together, Ghost and the Infinite Darkness plan to break free of their oppressors and run for the hills. I just wished they would have stopped for a few minutes and remembered to make a werewolf movie along the way.

This movie was missing something. I know what it is. A big clue is in the title. Notice that the title is "Ginger Snaps" and not "Brigitte Snaps" or even "Ghost Snaps". Ginger, (Katharine Isabelle), was the heart, soul and breasts of the first movie. She was one of the few things I liked about the original "Ginger Snaps". How anyone can think that they can make a successful sequel to "Ginger Snaps" without her is beyond my mortal powers of understanding. Technically she was in the sequel but only as a hallucination of Brigitte. Brigitte was the dumpy sister in the first "Ginger Snaps" and in the sequel she's the strung-out, dumpy one. That's just what I wanted to see. At least Ginger learned to embrace her wolf instincts. Brigitte is fighting tooth and claw against having to make a werewolf movie.

So Brigitte is a werewolf but she doesn't want anyone to know it. She especially doesn't want anyone in the audience to know it because that might make the movie interesting. So to fill in for the non-werewolf scenes, we are treated to the character of Ghost. She will try your patience. She is a whiny basket case, even worse than Brigitte. You will sit there and dream of a large werewolf ripping her throat open and chugging down her blood. Unfortunately, the filmmakers have different designs for her.

Whether or not you like this movie will depend entirely on how you react to the ending. As for me, it felt like it was made up at the last second and negated the rest of the movie. Overall, I was disappointed with "Ginger Snaps II". But it did have a few interesting werewolf scenes so I'd give it a 1.5 out of 4. I'm a sucker for any kind of werewolf I can get.

SCORE: 1.5 out of 4 because Brigitte finally snapped