Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

Directed by: Grant Harvey

Writing credits: Stephen Massicotte, Christina Ray

Cast: Emily Perkins .... Brigitte
Katharine Isabelle .... Ginger

The beginning…of lame in the ranks of the Ginger series. Oh Lions Gate, four years ago we were given Ginger Snaps as a creative although somewhat gory metaphor for puberty. The film was darkly funny, terribly frightening, touching and brilliant in it’s parallels of the coming of age issues teenage girls face. Then earlier this year Ginger Snaps: Unleashed was released into theatres. Although not written by Karen Walton who was responsible for the first Ginger screenplay and story (sharing story credit with director John Fawcett) the second instalment was not without merit. Megan Martin penned an entertaining sequel that may not have been a groundbreaking work of genius but managed to thrill and chill. Unleashed had it’s faults mind you but over all it was a great movie that took the groundwork of Ginger Snaps and used it to broaden the Fitzgerald’s story exploring new elements of the ‘curse’.
So if Ginger Snaps gave us ‘The change, puberty is hell’ and Unleashed gave us ‘adjusting to puberty, although that theme is loose at best the third Ginger clearly looks at puberty again? Ginger Snaps Back : The Beginning in addition to having a poor name has a bad premise, the Fitzgerald sisters modern speech and personality in tact show up in a Canadian fort in 1815. The long and the short of it is the history of history repeating itself, Ginger gets bit and we watch a diluted version of the first film as Bridgette tries to deal with the sister whom she loves and sees as the only person who seems to understand her turn in to a monster. To disguise the similarities between this ‘prequel’ and the original, aside from the obvious period aspects we have some side stories thrown in and about that never really add up to much. I blame the failure of the sub plots mostly on poorly develop characters that were in turn poorly acted. I will give credit where credit is due, although they were given very little to work with Emily Perkins and Katherine Isabelle gave more than decent performances as the Fitzgerald sisters. Although Emily didn’t shine as brightly as in the previous movies she still marks herself as a talented actress, in so far as this genre will allow.
The film as a whole was more attractive than the previous films although this has more to do with the location than the shot set ups. The scare tactics were weak and only half of the make up was well done, the Wallace boy was a highlight. In all fairness the budget for this movie was likely meagre at best. Separate this direct to home video release from the previous Ginger flicks and I’d place this at least within sight of the top werewolf movies ever. However, in comparison with the other Gingers and you have a fabulously original story that is given no justice by being rehashed and played out again a century earlier with a less talented supporting cast, the priest drove me nuts. If you haven’t seen any of the Gingers see the first, if you have nothing to do rent the second, if you adore them by all means watch the prequel but if your looking for a weekend renter this isn’t exactly a must see.