Ginger Snaps (2000)/Joe Bob's Last Drive-In

 I totally get all the emphasis on "growing up" and the inconvenience of werewolvery sort of compiling on the already frustrating emergence of "the cycle", with all the suck that comes along with it, but I really responded even more to how this drives a wedge between the strong bond of sisters. One thing I definitely always loved about the film was the devotion of Brigitte towards Ginger even when Ginger seemed to start separating herself or became quite difficult to keep under any sort of behavioral restraint. And a lot of folks can relate to Brigitte's awkward outcast status in school. How you sort of duck your head down and try to walk past those in that hierarchy that loves to call you freak. While Ginger will fight off a bully during lacrosse for Brigitte, Brigitte is working with the local drug dealer to find a medicinal "reverse" for her sister's "infection". Ginger's situation (gradually turning "wolfy", aggressive, sexual, violent), with all the difficulties that arise, certainly complicates Brigitte's own life, trying to help while hoping to keep sis from killing extra people from high school.

I think the inevitability of Ginger's transformation (it doesn't just result in human to werewolf and back to human as in other traditional werewolf films) is just gutwrenching, especially at the end when Brigitte realizes all her efforts are in vain. Dead dogs, burying a body pulled from the freezer after a fall in the kitchen, an infected jerk from school pissing blood after Ginger "rocks his world", staged crime scene snap shots for a high school assignment, a father told by the mother to stay out of conversations about his daughter, the drug dealer's van hitting the werewolf that slashed and bit Ginger resulting in his association with Brigitte, and a potential boyfriend taken from Brigitte because Ginger just couldn't help herself. The angst of high school, a sisterly bond with all the intrusions that come with werewolvery, and parents totally clueless about what is actually happening; while certain aspects could be taken from plenty of other teen films of the time and the even another decade before, most of them didn't have to deal with a tail growing in the back, fangs forming in their teeth, and this hunger that won't go away.

I watched this on The Last Drive-In, so Joe Bob talking about "goth" as Darcy tries to stay on her phone and avoid the topic as much as possible cracked me up. His Canadian film industry trivia is also fun. I agree with him that this is one of the greatest werewolf films ever made.

So, much like "Donnie Darko", this film really just popped up on cable when I was in my 20s and I can remember thinking, "This is really fucking good." Sometimes really great films just aren't blockbusters but eventually find their audience. I love that this hasn't been forsaken to the land of horror obscurity.