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The Story: An oddball teen tries to cure her lycanthropic sister.

Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are a pair of misfit teens with a touch for the morbid; as a school project, they photograph one another in various scenes of death, including one with Ginger impaled on a white picket fence.

The girls are shunned and made fun of at school, and their home life isn't any better; both girls are three years past the age where menstruation starts, and their flakey, June Cleaver-ish mother (Mimi Rogers) is a dopey pain in the ass. The father's not much to speak of either, as he's constantly disregarded by both the girls and their mother.

But there's something wrong with the neighborhood, as well; a wild beast has been making meals out of neighborhood pets, ravaging them and ripping them to bits. One night while out, the girls walk through a playground and come across a still-warm dog that's been shred to pieces; that instant, blood begins running down Ginger's leg as her long-delayed menstrual cycle abruptly begins. The smell of fresh blood draws the attention of the mysterious animal, and Ginger is quickly attacked and dragged into the woods. Brigitte gives chase, trying to pinpoint where her sister's terrified screams are coming from.

Within moments, Ginger reappears, bloodied and torn, and the sisters run for their lives. Still hungry for prey, the creature follows them across a highway where it is suddenly pulverized by a passing van belonging to the school pot dealer, Sam.

Back at home, the sisters sneak into their basement bedroom where they're amazed to see that Ginger's wounds are already healing. From this point on, Ginger begins acting strangely; you see, she's becoming a werewolf. Soon, Brigitte hooks up with Sam as the two try to find a cure for Ginger.

Ginger Snaps is a terrific example as the horror movie as metaphor where lycanthrope is compared to puberty. Brigitte is aghast as her sister suddenly begins to grow hair in funny places, starts dressing sexy, and even grows attracted to members of the opposite sex. The metaphor is justly taken to the extreme and by the halfway mark Ginger's attraction to boys has literally turned her into a bitch in heat. It's this kind of blatantly metaphorical approach that makes Ginger Snaps work so well.

The performances aren't too shabby, either. Perkins is perfect as the painfully shy Brigitte who, after a lifetime of having her sister take up for her, is pushed into having to look out for the now feral Ginger. Isabelle, as Ginger, is also very good in a role that requires her to wear at first subtle fangs and claws and eventually full body prosthetics. Rogers is a gas as the ditsy mother whose face lights up with glee when she learns Ginger's period has begun.

The strengths of this movie lie in the treatment of the material and the fantastic performances, but there are a couple weaknesses.

First off, the father at one point is shunned out of a conversation between mother and daughters and is never seen or heard from again. Rogers also disappears after going to a party to pick the girls up, and this is after having found a body the girls buried and telling Brigitte that she'd take the girls, burn down the house and they'd get away. It would have been interesting to have seen her during the finale, or in an epilogue, if they had one (I'll get to that in a sec).

The final werewolf creature is a disappointment as well. Despite the fact that Ginger Snaps is a low budget Canadian production, it still could have been a bit more convincing; as it is, it more resembles the Rat Creature that Tom Savini turns into in From Dusk Till Dawn than any kind of wolf. However, the rest of the makeup effects in the film are well done.

And lastly, the ending itself is a bit of a letdown. It really could have used an epilogue, letting us know what happened to the characters after the final ordeal. Though there is definitely an ending to the film, it seems hollow without any kind of follow up.

Still, Ginger Snaps is a great little movie. Though the story weaknesses do indeed have an effect, the rest of the movie is so fresh, and done so intelligently and convincingly that I'm willing to let some of the faults slide. But not all of them.

Summing up, Ginger Snaps is, despite it's few weaknesses, one of the best werewolf movies since An American Werewolf In London. Definitely try a rental before purchasing, but I think it's worth the money.