Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed

While the first Ginger Snaps brilliantly drew comparisons to the act of gradually turning into a werewolf and the at times as equally terrifying prospect of going through puberty (the hair, the sex drive, the urge to kill, etc.), Ginger Snaps II eschews either the first's intriguing comparison or its contrast of death-obsessed misfit siblings locked in a bland suburban setting. Instead, Ginger Snaps II utilises some typical horror movie locations (the hospital, the cabin in the woods) to tell its tale, but it is by no means a typical horror movie. Brigitte (Emily Perkins) is infected with lycanthropy and on the run. Her only hope is injecting Monkshood daily to fight the transformation that took her sister, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle), in the original, who appears here in a ghost/devil on the shoulder-type role. Brigitte also has another problem: a werewolf is tracking her and wants to mate. After overdosing on Monkshood and being mistaken for a junkie, she ends up trapped in drug rehab clinic without her Monkshood to stave off her transformation, and with the beast stalking her. Emily Perkins, as Brigitte, is simply excellent in the sequel, emerging from the nebbish, overshadowed girl of the first film to become a fierce protagonist (much like Linda Hamilton's transformation from Terminator to Judgement Day, a fact pointed out in the commentary). And Tatiana Maslany as Ghost, a fellow hospital dweller for whom all is not right, is also excellent throughout, pulling off her character's twists and quirks with ease. Despite being only a single disc, GS2 features a number of deleted scenes (some of which should have stayed in, as the movie is a tight 93 minutes), audition tapes, a director's commentary (actually a gang commentary that gets preoccupied lamenting shots that could have been wider and discussing how great everyone is) and a trailer for Ginger Snaps 3, a prequel that will reunite Brigitte and Ginger. With the first two offerings being exceptional good horror movies (Canadian ones at that), and the third promising more action, the series continues to have bite. Plus: storyboards, more. (Seville)