Ginger Snaps. 4K Ultra HD. Vestron Collectors Series from Lionsgate. May 19th. Ginger Snaps Is Getting the 4K It Always Deserved.
That sentence is going to make a lot of Canadian horror fans very happy today. Honestly, I feel like it should make every horror fan happy.
Ginger Snaps (2000) is not just a good werewolf movie. It is one of the best werewolf movies ever made, full stop, and it is not a close competition. I don’t care what anyone fucking says, it is about as great as this creature gets in the medium of film.
Directed by John Fawcett, written by Karen Walton and starring Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle, this low budget cut film came out of my home province of Ontario. Shot with no budget and a vision that most studio horror films from the same decade couldn’t match even with ten times the resources, this film embodies absolutely everything that I am trying to accomplish in an avenue of my media company.
The premise uses lycanthropy as a utterly serious metaphor for adolescence, female bodies, transformation, and the particular violence of becoming something other than what you were. It does not wink at you about any of this, it instead commits completely. And it is fucking hysterical in the darkest possible way, because the two sisters at the centre of the film have a relationship that is real and painful and recognizable, even when one of them is slowly turning into something that wants to eat the neighbours.
This film spent years undervalued outside of dedicated horror circles. I’ll admit, when I first saw it at the tender age of 11, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it, but hindsight and a rewatch entirely changed my perspective on it when I was a little more mature. Despite my personal opinions, it has always had a following that knows exactly what it is, yet it still has never — in my opinion — had the mainstream recognition it deserves.
A Vestron Collectors Series 4K release from Lionsgate is the kind of treatment reserved for films that someone believes in for the long term. Historically, when Vestron puts serious work into an edition, it tends to be done right.
If you haven’t seen Ginger Snaps, fix that this spring on May 19th and if you own an older copy, the 4K is (always) worth the upgrade. If you’ve been living under a rock, you can watch the trailer for it here and preorder your 4K copy here.
What is the most underrated Canadian horror film in your opinion? Because the answer is Ginger Snaps, but make your case.