Blu-Ray Review: GINGER SNAPS

Scream Factory brings the 2000 Canadian cult classic, Ginger Snaps, to Blu-Ray & DVD – for the first time on DVD in the correct aspect ratio in the States.

The Movie

Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are a couple of outcast teens obsessed with death, more specifically suicide, who still haven’t been visited by Aunt Flo. After an attack in the woods, Brigitte brings the wounded Ginger back to their room only to realize that her newly inflicted wounds are already healing. Brigitte starts to believe that a lycanthrope might have intercepted the Aunt and might now be going through some animalistic changes instead. Something’s wrong with Ginger, other than being…female.   

Given the fact that the late 90’s seemed to be a mixture of soap opera drama with a couple of kills mixed in as a result of the success of Scream, Ginger Snaps is a unique film that not only felt fresh at the time of its release but still has the potency to entertain horror fans as of today. The film is mainly an allegory for the transition to womanhood but even fans of werewolf films and general horror will dig this take on the subject. Sure, it has some of the sterotypical characters of the new millennia – slacker/stoner/drug dealer character with longer hair who doesn’t attend the school and an athletic female bully who is used as catalyst to propel the anger side of Ginger – but the thing that elevates Ginger Snaps from mediocrity is the sharp writing from Karen Walton who brings a genuine voice to the girls. While the finale seems like it was thrown together in a hurry and you may not get the creature payoff that you would get in another werewolf film that would have a full reveal of the creature, you will forget about this shortcoming after all is said and done.

Presentation

The film is presented with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Colors look a bit muted than normal but other than that the presentation is clean and relatively sharp with detail. The previous feature-less DVD release in the United States by Lionsgate was presented in the incorrect format of 1.33:1, Full Frame which prompted many fans to import the Canadian Region 1 Collector’s Edition DVD to see the film in its Original Aspect Ratio along with special features. I have taken some screenshots of the Scream Factory DVD and compared them to the Canadian Region 1 DVD released by TVA Films. Click on the images to enlarge…

As you can tell, the Canadian DVD release by TVA Films had a drastic difference in color palette, particularly the daylight scenes. Those daylight scenes from that release seem to have a pink/orange-ish tone to them while some other scenes in comparison to the Scream Factory release don’t seem to have that drastic of a difference. While I feel that Scream Factory’s release may feel more true to the original look of the film, some fans of the film may find issue with the colors being too muted and thereby taking away from the interpretation that this takes place during the Autumn season as opposed to Winter. Also, it will leave some viewers to question if the daylight scenes are properly represented on the Scream Factory release. I does look like there contrast is a bit higher than it should be on the Scream Factory release but nothing to be upset about (as evident in the below screenshot).

Special Features

Features in red are exclusive to the Scream Factory release while features in black were ported over from the Canadian release.

Ginger Snaps: Blood, Teeth and Fur (1:06:34) – A new featurette that catches up with director John Fawcett, writer Karen Walton and more. This is a very thorough and in-depth featurette that talks about the film’s inception to some antidotes of making the film and what the film’s impact has been on everyone involved. For fans of the film, this is a very good featurette that feels personal and doesn’t skimp on any details missed in some of the commentaries. One thing that is lacking in this featurette is the fact is that it is all one chapter. Since it runs only 40 minutes less than the actual film, it would have been nice to have chapter stops in case you don’t have a whole hour to watch it in one sitting.

Growing Pains: Puberty in Horror Films (27:09) – Another new featurette specifically created for this release that is a two camera setup for a four-person conversation with Kristy Jett, Carolyn Axel, Heidi Honeycutt and Rebeccah McKendry.

Deleted Scenes (25:07) – While listed separately with different options to view the scenes with original audio, Director or Writer commentary, they are the same collection of deleted scenes.

Featurette (4:51) – A short making of featurette that features on-set footage along with on camera interviews with director John Fawcett and Stars Katharine Isabelle (with the werewolf teeth), Emily Perkins, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers as well as producers Karen Lee Hall & Steven Hoban and writer Karen Walton. Most of this consists of the stars explaining their characters and the director explaining how this would be a different take of a horror film.

Cast Auditions and Rehearsals (17:45)

Creation of the Beast (4:59) – A behind-the-scenes look at sculpting and the collaboration of the creation of the monster shot via a consumer camcorder.

Being John Fawcett (1:57) – A snippet from, what looks like, Fawcett’s video diary with Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. This short footage talks about their audition. It’s a nice peek into the bonding that the director had with the two lead actresses.

Theatrical Trailers (3:45) – Two theatrical trailers – one of which wasn’t featured on the previous Canadian Collector’s Edition DVD.

TV Spots (1:01) – Two TV Spots that tries to capture some of the comedic aspect of the film.

Production Design Artwork (1:14) – While this feature was definitely designed for the previously released Canadian Collector’s Edition DVD, it was not included on that release. However, it is included here.

Of note, the only two features on the TVA Films Canadian release that didn’t port over were Cast & Crew Biographies and a Photo Gallery, which showed stills from the school project that Brigitte and Ginger did.

Final Thoughts

Scream Factory brings a solid release and for fans that only had the Lionsgate release will be happy to have a definitive release for the film. However, for owners of the TVA Films Canadian release, depending on the owners preference of the look of the film, may want to hold on to their old release while upgrading to Blu-Ray.

All screenshots are taken from the Blu-Ray & compressed to JPEG format unless otherwise noted.