Line #69 Film/GingerSnaps


1	[[quoteright:277:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gingersnaps_.jpg]]
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3	->'''Ginger Fitzgerald:''' Out by sixteen, or dead on the scene, but together forever.\
4	'''Brigitte Fitzgerald:''' United against life as we know it.
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6	''Ginger Snaps'' is a 2000 Canadian TeenHorror film which uses lycanthropy as a metaphor for female puberty. The story revolves around the sullen and morbid Fitzgerald sisters, Brigitte and Ginger, outcasts at their high school, with no friends besides each other. The close bond between the sisters is put in danger after Ginger gets attacked and bitten by a strange beast in the woods. Soon following the incident, radical changes start happening in her body and behavior. Her parents and teachers brush it off as her finally starting her journey into adulthood, but Brigitte knows something far more sinister is going on.
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8	The film spawned two follow-up movies in 2004 which were filmed back-to-back; ''Film/GingerSnaps2Unleashed'', a direct sequel which puts Brigitte in a rehab clinic struggling with a werewolf curse of her own, and the [[DirectToVideo direct-to-DVD]] ''Film/GingerSnapsBackTheBeginning'', a prequel of sorts set in the early 19th century North American frontier. [[https://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3638751/ginger-snaps-franchise-finds-new-life-television-series/ In 2020, a TV series reboot was announced.]]
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11	!!This film contains examples of:
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13	* AccidentalMurder: Neither Brigitte or Ginger murder Trina. She slips in some rotten milk and smashes her brains out on the countertop.
14	* AffectionateNickname: Ginger mostly calls Brigitte "B". Brigitte calls Ginger "Ging" on her part. The two are sisters and very close (at first). Ginger's very protective of her.
15	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Ginger's first "boyfriend" is Jason, the biggest jerk in school.
16	* AlphaBitch:
17	** Trina Sinclair. She relentlessly teases Ginger and Brigitte and assaults Brigitte in gym class after she overhears the sisters making sarcastic comments about her. Despite her horrid behavior, she's very popular with the boys and has a GirlPosse that follows her around.
18	** Ginger also dips into this, literally and figuratively. She develops an animosity with canines and feels compelled to cow them into submission, and the curse also spurs her to become more extroverted, domineering, and sexually aggressive in her everyday life.
19	* ArtifactTitle: [[spoiler: Ginger dies in the first film, which makes the title meaningless in the sequel except for establishing the franchise. She comes back for Ginger Snaps Back.]]
20	* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler:After having sex with Jason, Ginger returns eerily quiet. After Bridgette asks Ginger if Jason hurt her, she heads straight to the bathroom to throw up. Bridgette follows and finds Ginger covered in blood. She (and the audience) fears the worst, and asks "Where is he?", to which Ginger responds, "Next door." Upon looking over the fence, we learn that Jason is fine. The neighbors' dog Norman... not so much.]]
21	* BearsAreBadNews: Brigitte invokes the "bears are attracted to menstruation" myth when trying to determine what the Beast of Bailey Downs was and why it went after Ginger.
22	* BeautyInversion: The filmmakers do a very good job of making Creator/EmilyPerkins (Bridgette) look frumpy, when you consider just how gorgeous she is in real life.
23	* BerserkButton: If Ginger even suspects anyone of doing anything to Brigitte, they're dead, whether they're guilty or not.
24	* BigDamnHeroes: Subverted. [[spoiler:After Brigitte infects herself with the werewolf curse, she and Ginger start to head home from the Halloween party, only for Sam to knock Ginger out with a shovel in an attempt to save Brigitte. Brigitte yells at him for this because she was actually in control of the situation.]]
25	-->[[spoiler:'''Brigitte:''' What the Hell did you do that for?!\
26	'''Sam:''' I won't let you do this, Brigitte! You both need help!\
27	'''Brigitte:''' [[WhatTheHellHero YOU]] [[PrecisionFStrike FUCKING]] ''[[WhatTheHellHero IDIOT!]]'' The cure ''works!'' I had to use it on somebody else, but there's more at the house! This was the only way I could get her to come back with me!\
28	'''Sam:''' [[OhCrap Oh, shit]]... WELL, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!]]
29	* BloodyHorror: Jason urinates blood after having unprotected sex with Ginger.
30	* BloodySmile: While the Fitzgerald sisters are trying to hide all evidence of Trina's murder, Ginger smile bloodily while pretending its only dyed corn syrup and part of the sisters' school project on suicides.
31	* BodyHorror: As a result of being attacked by a werewolf, Ginger grows fur on her wounds, grows a tail, and develops a dewclaw on her right ankle.
32	* BrainyBrunette: Brigitte figures out what's happening to Ginger and finds a method by which to counter her transformation. She also enacts a rather audacious plan in the end, which only unravels because [[PoorCommunicationKills she kept it to herself]].
33	* BrotherSisterIncest: Though it's not nearly as blatant in the film as it was in early drafts of the script, the subtext is here and there. Particularly during Ginger's WeCanRuleTogether moment at the halls of the school, when she sensually climbs on top of Brigitte and tries to convince her to become a werewolf as well by "swapping juice".
34	* ChekhovsGun: In the opening scene of the film, Ginger plays with a knife, and suggests she's planning on slitting her throat with it. Later, she uses the same knife to try and cut off her tail. [[spoiler:Finally, Brigitte uses the knife in the finale to kill Ginger in self-defense.]]
35	* ChunkySalsaRule: The werewolf that infects Ginger is taken out, not by a silver bullet, but by a speeding van. Sam uses this knowledge to think of [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent possible alternatives to dealing with lycanthropy]], while Ginger tries [[ThisIsReality debunking the possibility of werewolves altogether.]]
36	* ColdOpen: A series of establishing shots of the suburbs, with no music and only a single production logo at the start.
37	* ComingOfAgeStory: More for Brigitte than for Ginger. The film juxtaposes both of them growing up as teens while having to deal with Ginger's lycanthropy (and her normal development, as she gets her period at the same time, which ties into this since both are controlled by the moon). Brigitte has to become very much a young woman, finding the way to cure Ginger but then when that doesn't work at last [[spoiler:stabbing her to death in self-defense]].
38	* CursedWithAwesome: Played straight, then inverted. Ginger denies that anything is amiss with her at first, despairs when she accepts it, and tries to control or cure it with Brigitte's help. But as the curse progresses, bringing to the fore her darkest impulses, she decides that lycanthropy is ''wonderful''. She feels empowered, a force of nature, and no longer wants to return to her mundane life, but rather to drag her sister into her new one. [[spoiler:She loses both herself and her life in the end.]]
39	* CuteMonsterGirl: Ginger. Of course, [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute this all depends]] on how far she's gone into her transformation.
40	* DeathByFallingOver: Trina brains herself on a countertop by slipping in a puddle of milk.
41	* DecoyProtagonist: For the first half of the film there's more focus on Ginger, the title of the film relates to her, and she's the one who becomes a werewolf. Halfway through though, as Ginger becomes more antagonistic, her sister Brigitte essentially takes over as the film's true "hero".
42	* DownerEnding: The film ends with [[spoiler:Brigitte infecting herself with the werewolf curse before Ginger transforms into a full werewolf and kills Sam, before getting killed by Brigitte. Brigitte survives, but her sister and multiple other people are dead and she's badly traumatized. The sequel reveals that monkshood didn't fully cure Brigitte, either, it only slowed her transformation.]]
43	* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Ginger on the day of her transformation.
44	* EmoTeen: Both of the Fitzgerald sisters, who are moody loners with a fascination with death.
45	* EpunymousTitle: It's a triple entendre: Ginger mentally "snaps" and goes on a killing spree, Ginger snaps with her teeth after transforming, and, of course, ginger snaps are a kind of cookie.
46	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Ginger is introduced playing with a kitchen knife, and explaining to her sister why suicide is perfect for them.
47	* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Everyone seems to think Brigitte and Sam have a thing for one another. When Sam finds out, he claims he doesn't think of her that way. Brigitte probably doesn't either.
48	* EvilDetectingDog: After she gets bitten, dogs constantly bark at Ginger.
49	* FailedASpotCheck: Not even her parents seem to notice Ginger's fangs, which become more and more pronounced until her entire mouth is monstrously revamped. As it nears its final stages, her now-blatant lycanthropy is dismissed as a Halloween costume.
50	* FanDisservice: Ginger comes on to Sam in a way she seems to think is alluring, but this is more disturbing than anything else because she's 16 and Sam is probably older than 18, she has six nipples on her chest, and the curse has left her skin extremely wrinkled and malformed.
51	* FieryRedhead: Ginger, though she's more reserved at the beginning.
52	* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: [[spoiler:Towards the end of the movie, Ginger goes to the Halloween party in Sam's greenhouse. Everyone thinks her deformed face and white hair are a costume.]]
53	* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Played straight in that Brigitte is the smart one, and Ginger is the pretty one, but subverted in that the sisters are unbelievably close friends, at least initially.
54	* {{Gorn}}: The blood-eating scene at the end.
55	* {{Goth}}: Brigitte and Ginger exhibit a post-grunge Y2K era style of the counterculture, wearing thrift store clothes, leggings, coats, and sneakers, along with their signature bird skull necklaces.
56	* GothsHaveItHard: Ginger and Brigitte are somewhere between goths and emos - they always wear dark colors, have no friends, and are obsessed with death. They also religiously and seriously plan to commit suicide before they get their periods. [[spoiler:Only Ginger becoming a werewolf and murdering several people stops this from happening.]]
57	* GrowingUpSucks: The theme of the series.
58	* HealingFactor: Subverted. One of the initial symptoms of the werewolf curse is the wound that caused the infection completely healing within 24 hours. It's how Brigitte knows something is amiss after Ginger is attacked; the massive slashes on her shoulder and upper chest have already started to heal. [[spoiler: But when Brigitte stabs a fully transformed Ginger at the end of the film, she doesn't get back up again.]]
59	-->'''Brigitte:''' That's impossible… they're already ''healing''!
60	* HenpeckedHusband: Mr. Fitzgerald, who is distant from his daughters and doesn't seem to have much volition within his troubled marriage with Pamela.
61	* IHaveThisFriend: Inverted; when Brigitte goes to Sam to get help for the werewolf curse, she lies and tells him she herself is the one in need of a cure, not Ginger. Sam sees through this almost immediately.
62	* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The film takes place over the month of October, with the climax occurring on Halloween night.
63	* JerkassHasAPoint: As much of a bitch as Trina was, she was completely right in thinking Brigette and Ginger kidnapped her dog. Also, considering Ginger both assaulted her and implied she was going to kill her, she was quite justified in pulling a knife on her.
64	* KickTheDog: Ginger gets several, one of her first being an actual dog, in the face.
65	* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Ginger, as a Big Sister to Brigitte. She is absolutely merciless to anyone that bullies her sister.
66	-->'''Ginger:''' Do you want me to kill her? I can kill her for you, B.
67	-->'''Brigitte:''' Whatever.
68	-->'''Ginger:''' ''No,'' B. Not "Whatever". This isn't "Whatever".
69	** Later, she takes things too far, killing even the janitor because she doesn't like the way he looks at Brigitte.
70	* LateArrivalSpoiler: Plot summaries for the second movie makes no secret of [[spoiler:Brigitte contracting the werewolf curse and Ginger being dead]] at the end of this one.
71	* LockedIntoStrangeness: Strands of Ginger's hair starts turning grey as a part of the curse. By the end, her hair is pure white. [[spoiler: Interestingly, this doesn't happen to Brigitte when she begins turning.]]
72	* {{Metamorphosis}}: The werewolf curse in these films isn't the usual "transform every time the moon is full, and revert at daybreak" deal. Once bitten, you transform slowly over the course of one month (a gruesome process involving the growth of fingernails into sharp claws, canine teeth becoming much larger, and the development of wolf parts like a tail and dewclaw) until the night of the next full moon where the transformation massively accelerates, virtually destroying your mind and permanently locking you into a wolf form.
73	* NightmareFetishist: Brigitte and Ginger have a fascination with death and stage scenes of each other committing suicide or dying in accidents.
74	* NoPeriodsPeriod:
75	** Averted. Ginger getting her period is a major plot point as that's what attracts the werewolf to her in the first place. It is also the first change of many that will serve as a wedge between Ginger and her sister. Up until that point, their personalities and aims were almost identical. Ginger's abrupt but inevitable entrance into puberty foreshadows the sisters' emerging conflict and Brigitte's need to assert her own identity.
76	** Ginger's entering puberty and getting bit around the same time also helps maintaining TheMasquerade: everyone who doesn't know about or believe in werewolves, including Ginger herself, tends to attribute the changes in her behavior solely to her puberty without further questions.
77	* [[NotUsingTheZWord Not Using The W Word]]: Ginger refuses to acknowledge her transformation (and all vocabulary regarding such) at first. The word 'werewolf' is only uttered once in the entire series.
78	* OntologicalInertia: A werewolf does not revert to human form after death. In fact, they don't revert to human form ''ever''.
79	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Ginger's transformation into werewolf happens gradually, unlike in typical werewolf lore. Parallels are originally drawn between the curse and puberty, while the second film compares it to struggling with drug addiction. Also, the curse can be spread through unprotected sex, instead of only by being bitten.
80	* PerpetualFrowner: Brigitte only has one genuine smile in the movie.
81	* ThePromise: Brigitte and Ginger made a promise when they were eight, "Out by sixteen or dead in this scene, but together forever." [[spoiler: Their promise goes unfulfilled at the end of the first movie, but is kept in a weird way in the prequel, with both sisters becoming werewolves together in the wilderness.]]
82	* PsychosexualHorror: Brigitte and Ginger's lives are changed after Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and infected with the werewolf curse. Everyone brushes off Ginger's strange new behavior as a result of her simply "becoming a woman" but in reality, it was something far sinister. The film uses a werewolf curse and lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty and female menstruation. Not to mention the curse can be passed through unprotected sex and not just by being bitten.
83	* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler: Brigitte manages to walk away with her life and escape the curse, but both Sam and Ginger are dead.]]
84	* RapidFireShutUp: Ginger repeatedly slaps Trina in the face while doing this.
85	* ShagWagon: Sam's van gets used by some teenagers to smoke pot in private. He actually does use it as a work van, though.
86	* SharedUniverse:
87	** With ''Series/OrphanBlack'', which was also co-created by John Fawcett and shares some cast members with the films, Creator/TatianaMaslany and Eric Johnson among them. Both take place partially in a fictional Canadian suburb called Bailey Downs, and the rehab clinic Brigitte attends in the second film is the same clinic that Alison Hendrix attends in ''Orphan Black''.
88	** Also joining in is ''Film/AChristmasHorrorStory'', created by several people involved with ''Ginger Snaps'' and ''Orphan Black''. The film takes place in Bailey Downs, and according to WordOfGod by Steve Hoben (director of a segment of ''ACHS'', producer on ''Ginger Snaps''), a sequel segment to ''Ginger Snaps'' was on the table for that movie but wasn't chosen. But two of the directors have expressed interest in a sequel to ''ACHS''.
89	* TheSnarkKnight: The Fitzgerald sisters, to the rest of society.
90	* StepfordSmiler: Pamela Fitzgerald, to a terrifyingly perky degree. Made even more disturbing in a deleted scene where she claims credit for Trina's murder.
91	* SuicidePact: Ginger and Brigitte have had one since they were young, intending to die together. [[spoiler:They don't.]]
92	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Well, unless you think making a SuicidePact and staging gory death scenes for kicks are appropriate pastimes for two teenage girls.
93	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Subverted; Brigitte never reveals her plan for dealing with Ginger, and it goes well at first, but it's foiled by someone else who, on being yelled at for screwing it up, has the quite reasonable reaction of "How was I supposed to know that?!"
94	* UndyingLoyalty: The sisters' initial devotion to one another.
95	* ViralTransformation: The werewolf "curse" is biological in nature, but it bears a number of striking similarities to the supernatural werewolves of legend.
96	* VitriolicBestBuds: Ginger and Brigitte constantly take snipes at one another. Comes with the territory of being that close to one another, really.
97	* WeCanRuleTogether: Ginger trying to seduce Brigitte into joining her as a werewolf.
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Context Film / GingerSnaps