Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004)

Really Surprised!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Infected by the blood of her werewolf sister Ginger, runaway teenager Brigitte (Emily Perkins) attempts to fight off her own inevitable transformation into a slavering, hairy monster through the repeated injection of wolf's bane (also known as monkshood). After suffering a bad reaction to the serum, she collapses in the street, and wakes to find herself a patient in the Happier Times Care Centre, a home for recovering drug addicts. Now, unable to access her wolf's bane, Brigitte gradually begins to exhibit signs of wolfishness. Cursed with increasingly pointed ears, haunted by ghostly memories of her sister Ginger (Katharine Isabelle), and hunted by a male werewolf that intends to mate with her, Brigitte puts her trust in weird blonde girl Ghost (Tatiana Maslany), who is fascinated by her condition.The original Ginger Snaps used lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty, and this follow up continues the theme, Brigitte's gradual transformation into an uncontrollable beast a metaphor for unbridled teenage lust. It's not a particularly insightful or compelling subtext, nor is it all that original—The Company Of Wolves did the same kind of thing twenty years earlier— but it does allow for one of the most unexpected scenes in the history of werewolf cinema, in which Brigitte dreams that she is taking part in an all-girl group masturbation class. Other off-kilter elements that ensure Unleashed is still worth a watch include Ginger's occasional hallucinatory appearances, the film's creepy rehab setting, Ghost's eccentric behaviour, and a bizarre industrial soundtrack.6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Sent to a rehabilitation clinic, a teen's growing belief that she will become a werewolf like her sister causes her to go on the run to save her fellow inmates only for the ravenous beast to follow her around.On the whole this one turned out to be a surprisingly decent effort. One of the better elements here is the film's rather entertaining way it handles her growing and oncoming transformation early on, with the film working nicely due to the circumstances present. The process of staying at the rehab clinic makes the oncoming process all the more chilling by wanting to keep it from infecting the others as this one goes about her process with the different body-parts becoming more wolf-like, the slowly-appearing fangs and claws and then the deformed features that begin developing, which along with the rapid healing provides this one with a healthy and chilling beginning to show of the transformation. Likewise, the finale here is quite a blast with a lot to like as the previous attacks set-up a fantastic sense of tension with the early preparation measures and tactics that play out nicely in the home while the scenes move through the various rooms of the house which is quite fun. From the gore to the twisted logic within and allowing for the great werewolf make-up having a chance to really shine here, these are enough to hold off the few flaws in here. One of the bigger problems here is the rather low amount of werewolf action actually put into this one as there's just not a whole lot of here where it really gets to attack. The only early attack scene is plagued by haphazard editing that really makes for a troubling time, which is all this has in terms of werewolf action until the finale anyway so that can wear on some viewers. That is due also to the film's other big flaw in that the first half is once again filled with scenes that don't really make this all too interesting as the scenes in the rehab clinic just don't have anything for them by tying in the change in lycanthropy to a drug relapse. This is similar to the original which tied it to burgeoning femininity, and while this one does manage to come off a little better at doing this, once again the novelty is off-set by the sheer boredom it brings out. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, drug use, violence-against-animals and a scene of group masturbation

Bizarrely, good werewolf movies seem to come out only every 20 years, starting with The Wolf Man in 1941, The Curse of the Werewolf in 1961, The Howling and An American Werewolf in London in 1981, and Ginger Snaps, which received wide release in 2001 though originally shown in 2000. Ginger Snaps is Canada's big achievement in werewolf lore, so let's build on that. But how do you make a film franchise when your title character is dead? The answer is to make Ginger a ghost- not to be confused with a new character called Ghost- who haunts her sister Brigitte, struggling against becoming a werewolf herself. Incidentally, she's also struggling against being raped by a werewolf. The end result is that Ginger Snaps 2 is a worthy follow-up of Ginger Snaps. It's missing the metaphor- the association of the legend with puberty pretty much goes out the window- and is more of a straight forward horror movie, but it's got the same blend with dark comedy. (For example, one of the girls in rehab tells Brigitte she sucks at suicide). Like the first, it also has a dash of sexuality, as the girls in rehab seem to masturbate together (is that something they really do in rehab? Sweet!) The basic concept of Brigitte being locked up in a claustrophobic institution where she might unleash carnage on the inmates is a good one; later she escapes to a house where the depths of Ghost's sinister nature are revealed. In the end, Brigitte seems to have fully transformed into a wolf, and is locked in Ghost's basement for Ghost to give her enemies to. That's dark, and it pretty much rules out a Ginger Snaps 3 where Brigitte would still be a sympathetic heroine (the third move is a prequel, instead). Ginger Snaps 2 is a worthy sequel to an outstanding werewolf film, and is worth a look.

Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Ginger Snaps. This sequel focuses on Brigitte who is desperately trying to prevent what happened to her sister, Ginger, from happening to her by shooting up with monkshood. She sent to rehab, with the police assuming monkshood is an illegal drug.Unlike the first movie, Ginger Snaps II is a genuinely creepy film. The humour present in the first movie is largely missing and has been replaced with a more dark and serious tone. It really does work, although to a lesser extent than in the first film.The special effects, however, are not done as well as in the first. What originally made Ginger Snaps so great was the fact that it didn't make use of CGI. This film does make use of CGI though, although the wolf itself is still a puppet. Although it does make the film appear more sleek and stylish, the CGI also takes away from what made the first movie so good in the first place.Brigitte's transformation into a werewolf is much different than that of Ginger's. Brigitte continues to use monkshood to try and combat the changes and as a result her transformation appears more twisted and ugly. That being said, this improves on the suspense and the overall effect of the transformation quite a bit.Ginger Snaps II is more of the horror and less of the comedy, but it still works very well. You won't be sorry you watched it.http://ukmore.tk/