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Ginger Snaps Unleashed
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| Year: |
2004
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Director: |
Brett Sullivan
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| Stars: |
Emily Perkins, Tatiana Maslany, Eric Johnson, Janet Kidder, Brendan Fletcher, Katharine Isabelle, Susan Adam, Chris Fassbender, Pascale Hutton, Michelle Beaudoin, David McNally, Patricia Idlette, Lydia Lau, Coralie Cairns, Shaun Johnston
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| Genre: |
Horror |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Brigitte (Emily Perkins) is living a life on the run since she put her werewolf sister to death, but not because she is being hunted by the police, no, she is being hunted by something far more dangerous. At night, she visits the library, which is where she is now, leafing through books on her sister's condition. However, the librarian has noticed her around and he makes a move on her, something that Brigitte cannot afford to respond to, and after it's clear that she has a stack of overdue books she rushes away. As she makes her way along the gloomy, snowy streets - what's that? Is there something lurking in that dark alleyway? She returns to her temporary home yet realising that she has been found she packs up and is about to head out of the door when a figure looms up before her...
But don't worry, it's the librarian. On second thoughts, do worry, as when Brigitte gets into her car a larger figure appears, a wolf-like figure, and the librarian is devoured. Brigitte is knocked unconscious and the real story can begin when she wakes up as she is now in a women's hospital facility that appears to cater for the mentally unhinged. The original Ginger Snaps was a cult success, so a sequel and a prequel were ordered, Unleashed being the first of them, but that special bond between Ginger and her sister (Katharine Isabelle) wasn't really part of it this time around. However, she still appears, apparently as a figment of Brigitte's imagination to intone portents of doom about how things will end up.
Scripted by Megan Martin, the film's lead character is really put through the mill due to another unfortunate twist in that she is also beginning to turn having been bitten by Ginger in her efforts to dispatch her. To hold this at bay, she injects herself with wolfsbane, something she no longer has access to in the high security hospital, and when she is sitting through a session where the mostly surly patients confess their problems, Brigitte ends up in solitary confinement when she says, quite truthfully, that if they don't let her go she's going to attack the lot of them. Brigitte won't find anyone to replace Ginger, and her isolation is keenly conveyed, but the younger Ghost (Tatiana Maslany) might just fill that role.
On the other hand, Ghost might have troubles of her own, but she is enthusiastic about being Brigitte's best friend and helps her escape, taking her to the house she shared with her grandmother (why do wolf stories have so many grandmothers in them?). Granny is in the hospital, victim of a horrific accident, and Ghost is by her side as she has no foster home to go to. Despite a fairly straightforward storyline, Unleashed manages a few surprises, but the humour is a little forced and the laughs are few and far between (although the "Lesbian?" note is funny). And their werewolf is no more convincing than in the first film. In fact, the chilly landscape enhances the overwhelmingly bleak atmosphere, from the beginning looking like a horror film for self-harmers, to a finale that holds no hope for its lead, although not in the way you might have anticipated. Music by Kurt Swinghammer.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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