[[quoteright:277:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gingersnaps_.jpg]]
'''''Ginger Snaps''''' is a 2000 Canadian teen horror film which uses lycanthropy as a metaphor for 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. The parents and teachers brush it off as her finally starting her journey into adulthood, but Brigitte knows something even more sinister is going on. She sets out to find a cure for her sister's worsening curse before it's too late.

The film spawned two follow-up movies, which were filmed back-to-back; ''Ginger Snaps: Unleashed'', a direct sequel which puts Brigitte in a rehab clinic struggling with a werewolf curse of her own, and ''Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning'', a prequel of sorts set in the early 19th century North American frontier.

Not to be confused with the ginger biscuits of the same name, or the character from ''StrawberryShortcake''.

Now has a [[Characters/GingerSnaps character sheet]].

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!!These films contain examples of:

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler: Ghost]], at least towards Brigitte.
** Tyler the orderly goes back and forth between this and FauxAffablyEvil. On the one hand, he trades sexual favors from the girls at the rehab center in exchange for drugs. On the other, he seems legitimately (platonically) affectionate towards Ghost( [[spoiler: Ghost having faked his attempt to rape her]] ), and is worried about Brigitte when she starts to change noticeably
* AlphaBitch: Trina Sinclair in the first movie. She relentlessly teases Ginger and Brigette and assaults Brigette 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 Girl Posse that follows her around.
* 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.]]
* BerserkButton: If Ginger even suspects anyone of doing anything to Brigitte, they're dead, whether they're guilty or not.
* BigBad: In ''Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed'', Brigitte is on the run from a mysterious male werewolf that opposes her throughout the movie, but the ultimate villain in the story is [[spoiler:Ghost]].
** Reverend Gilbert in ''Ginger Snaps Back: The Begining''.
* 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.
** Also Jason urinates blood after having unprotected sex with Ginger.
* BrainyBrunette: Brigitte.
* [[BrotherSisterIncest Sister Sister Incest]]: The subtext is here and there. Particularly during Ginger's WeCanRuleTogether moment at the halls of the school.
* BuxomIsBetter: Why high school boys lust over Ginger.
* CanadaEh: All three movies take place in Canada.
* 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.]]
* CuteMonsterGirl: Ginger. Of course, [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute this all depends on how]] far she's gone into her transformation.
* ComingOfAgeStory: The original film is a very dark example.
* CreepyChild: Ghost in ''Unleashed'' confuses reality with comic books frequently and has a strange obsession with werewolves. [[spoiler: and that's before TheReveal]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Wallace]] in "Snaps Back"
* DwindlingParty: ''The Beginning''. One by one characters are killed off until only the sisters remain.
* DownerEnding: The first Ginger Snaps ends with [[spoiler: Sam being killed by Ginger, Ginger transforming into a full werewolf, and Brigitte contracting the werewolf virus.]]
** The second movie ends with [[spoiler: Brigitte being betrayed by Ghost who locks her in the basement and plans to use her to get rid of her enemies.]]
*** The third movie ends with [[spoiler: Brigitte, after being given the chance to kill Ginger and end the Curse, choosing instead to join Ginger as a werewolf and presumably doom generation after generation of reincarnations to the fates they suffered in the first movie.]]
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Sam and Brigitte had such a close relationship that both Ginger and Trina see something between them. When Ginger mentions it infront of Sam, he akwardly say's "''I don't think of you that way''."
* EvilDetectingDog: After her transformation, dogs constantly bark at Ginger.
** Rocky, Ghost's pet terrier, reacts this way to Brigitte in a deleted scene in the sequel.
** The Hunter in the third movie has an evil detecting ''wolf''
* FieryRedhead: Ginger.
* FollowTheLeader: One of the criticisms given of the later American horror film ''Film/JennifersBody'' was that its plot (two [[HoYay close]] female friends, one of whom turns into a monster and must be stopped by the other, [[HollywoodHomely less pretty]] one) was very similar to that of this film.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Every time Ghost is alone with her burned grandmother, her grandmother subtly tries to hit the call button to get the nurse to come into the room.
* GenreSavvy: both Sam and Brigitte are able to figure out that the thing which bit Ginger was a werewolf fairly quickly. Ginger doesn't believe Brigitte, however
* 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.
* {{Gorn}}
* {{Goth}}: Brigitte and Ginger.
* GrowingUpSucks: Boy, does it ever.
* HenpeckedHusband: Mr. Fitzgerald.
* 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.
* IronicEcho: Used in the sequel. "Without consequences to our actions, things get very confused."
* JailBait: Sam is implied to have a thing for these, being referred to as a “cherry hound” by Trina and accused of trying to get into Brigitte’s pants by Ginger. Maybe he should stop hanging around high schools in that big, conspicuous van…
** In a deleted scene (titled "Brigitte and Sam Understand Each Other" to boot) Brigitte actually mentions this title to Sam, who, seemingly aware of his reputation, denies it.
* JerkAss: It's easier listing off characters who don't qualify for this in the third movie: Brigitte, Ginger, the Old Woman, Seamus, and Milo. Finn and Murphy are also less JerkAss than the rest, their only moments being inspired by desperation on Finn's part ([[spoiler: to not be revealed to have been bitten]]} and trying to do the vital task of testing people to make sure they're not werewolves on Murphy's part.
* KarmaHoudini: As far as we know, Ghost wasn't punished [[spoiler:for what she did to Brigitte]]. And since it's unlikely a sequel is going to be made anytime soon, she remains so.
* KnightTemplarBigSister:
-->'''Ginger:''' Do you want me to kill her? I'll kill her, B.
-->'''Brigitte:''' Whatever.
-->'''Ginger:''' No, not 'Whatever'.
** Later, she takes things too far, killing even the janitor because she doesn't like the way she looks at Brigitte.
* LockedIntoStrangeness: Ginger's hair starts turning grey as a part of the curse.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: The Hunter and the old woman in the third film.
* {{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 for two weeks, 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.
* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: May be the case when Trina “disappears” if the missing posters are anything to go by.
** It's family-oriented suburbia. Things like the sudden disappearance of a popular, well-known teenager tend to get noticed.
* NightmareFetishist: Brigette and Ginger have a fascination with death and stage scenes of each other committing suicide or dying in accidents.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: 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.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Ginger refuses to acknowledge her transformation (and all vocabulary regarding such) at first.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Ghost is only ever referred to as "Ghost." Apparently her grandmother started calling her that when she was 7 as a way to subconsciously stop her from making sudden noises
* OntologicalInertia: A werewolf does not revert to human form after death. In fact, they don't revert to human form ''ever''.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Ginger's transformation into werewolf happens gradually, unlike in most werewolf lore. Parallels are originally drawn between the curse and puberty, while the second film compares it to struggling with drug addiction.
* PrecisionFStrike: "Good luck on your journey to the other side, [[spoiler: Beth-Ann]]. I'm sorry you were such a cunt."
* ThePromise: Brigitte and Ginger made a promise when they were eight, "Out by sixteen or dead at the scene, but together forever." Their promise goes unfulfilled by the end of the first movie.
* PyrrhicVictory: The conclusion to the first film. [[spoiler: Brigitte manages to walk away with her life and escape the curse ([[{{Sequelitis}} for now]]), but both Sam and Ginger are dead.]]
* [[ShootTheShaggyDog Shoot The Shaggy Werewolf]] [[spoiler:Both sisters and all the "good" characters are effectively dead by the end of the second film. The only ones still remaining are a sociopathic girl and a werewolf who was formerly Brigitte, but has likely had all vestiges of her former personality obliterated]].
* SinisterMinister: Reverend Gilbert in ''Ginger Snaps Back''.
* TheSnarkKnight: The Fitzgerald sisters.
* StepfordSmiler: Mrs Fitzgerald, to a terrifyingly perky degree.
* StockSubtitle: Featured in both sequels.
* StrangeGirl: Both Ginger and Brigitte.
** The sequel gives us Ghost, who is even stranger
* TakeAThirdOption: In "Snaps Back," the Hunter tells Brigitte that there are two options: kill Ginger and end the curse, or be killed by Ginger. At the end, Brigitte decides on a third option: [[spoiler: she kills the Hunter and leaves with Ginger, willingly offering her arm to her sister to bite so that the two of them can be "together forever"]]
* TokenRomance: {{Averted}}
* 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?!"
* UndyingLoyalty: In ''The Beginning'', the sisters will never ever '''ever''' give up on each other.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Ginger and Brigitte constantly take snipes at one another. Comes with the territory of being that close to one another, really.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Ginger trying to seduce Brigitte into joining her as a werewolf.
** Used far more oddly in Unleashed, though explaining how would mean spoilers.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Hunter in "Snaps Back"
* {{Wendigo}}: Lycanthropy is connected to them in ''Ginger Snaps Back''.
* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler: Ghost telling Brigitte Tyler raped her]] in ''Unleashed''.
* YouLookFamiliar: The actor who played the fairly minor role of Jeremy in the second movie plays the role of Finn in the third one
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