The Worst Film Ever

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Parts 2 and 3 combined don't add up to any give ten minutes of this film. While not very scary, it IS very well made, and the acting holds up strong. The casualties may be a bit over the top, but some people here get what is coming to them, as one would expect from a horror film.

Ginger Snaps (2000) *** (out of 4)Sisters Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) have a strange fascination with death and they're as close to each other as sister can be. Their relationship is put to the extreme test when Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and slowly begins to change.You can go back to 1941's THE WOLF MAN and hear from boys who saw that film and thought about the puberty angle. You know, a man turning into a wolf and having to deal with the various changes just like a boy turning into a man. The idea of puberty and werewolves isn't a new thing but it's certainly given an interesting and nice twist in GINGER SNAPS. The film has a psychological way of dealing with girls starting their periods and turning into women. How their bodies change as well as their own desires and fears. The idea of sisters having to deal with this "change" on top of one of them becoming a werewolf makes for a very good gem.GINGER SNAPS pretty much came out of nowhere and become a good little hit across the globe. The film picked up quite a cult following and it's easy to see why for a number of reasons. For starters, the whole teen horror film is usually full of really stupid movies about stupid characters doing stupid things. That's not the case here as the screenplay is quite good and all of the characters are quite smart and intelligent enough to know what's going on. I thought the entire idea of a relationship being put to the test by one turning into a werewolf worked on so many levles including the fact that the physical and psychological aspects are questioned, talked about and are forced to be dealt with.It certainly helps that both Perkins and Isabelle are so wonderful in their roles. If we didn't believe that they were sisters then the film wouldn't work as well as it does. The two play off one another perfectly and there's no doubt that both of them are believable in their roles. The relationship and their ups and downs seem 100% legit and that brings a certain reality to the picture. The supporting players are just as good with everything fitting their roles quite nicely.There are some flaws with the film including the second half just not being quite as interesting as the first. I'd also argue that the film runs on a bit too long but these are only minor issues in an otherwise impressive film.

A breath of fresh air for the teen horror film and a thumbs-up for the independent movie, this low-budget Canadian werewolf film is a real shocker which starts off slowly and gradually builds to a fantastic climax which is pretty much edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff. The standard "innocent is bitten by werewolf and begins to turn" story is propelled by some original touches, like the puberty angle which sees the teenage bite victim mistaking her transformation for mere menstrual woes. Frank dialogue, excellent developed characters, and actors who play each other off superbly are just some of the reasons this film became something of a sleeper hit, garnering generally rave reviews from critics who actually bothered watching it.What kept me watching the film closely is the unpredictability of the narrative; you're never quite sure where the film is going, or who might be the next victim, so you just have to keep watching to see where they're going with the story. The pacing is spot-on and the story ideal. Things start off on a decidedly realistic tone, with teenage woes and high school heartbreak on the top of the list. This gives us time to learn about and even like the principal characters, namely Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle as teenage sisters Brigitte and Ginger. Once the characters are properly introduced, the morbid and gory events begin to build up and we're then sucked into the film all the while, eagerly awaiting the next macabre happening and seeing what will happen. Themes of morbidity, friendship, and power run throughout to keep things interesting and the characters are likable only because they're all too human - no mindless sentimentalising here, thank god.Emily Perkins is the unorthodox leading lady and has a really interesting, thought-out character. Thankfully she isn't the pretty, vacuous untalented crowd-pulling lead a la Katie Holmes but instead a damn good actress. The person who really shines, however, is Katharine Isabelle, lending pathos and sympathy to her character's plight whilst at the same time being the monster and the villain. Some of her scenes are heartbreaking and difficult to watch as you end up liking her character so much despite her actions. The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, whether it be Mimi Rogers as the quirky mother or even the Chinese janitor. Respect to Kris Lemche, who invests his drug dealer with subtlety and charm.Thankfully for a modern horror flick, GINGER SNAPS doesn't skimp on the gore effects either. It isn't the goriest film ever made or anything but there are plenty of severed body parts and arterial fountains to appeal to the car-crash crowd, especially in the blood-drenched finale. But a sense of humour and lots of black comedy (involving severed fingers) keep it from becoming just too dark. Being a low budget film, the special effects aren't exceptional but they are solid and more than adequate, especially the much-criticised werewolves which aren't so bad either - it's nice to see animatronic creatures instead of CGI abominations and I know which I would take over the other any day. Despite being a tragic, downbeat tale this is never less than gripping and one of the best modern horrors I've seen for some time.

I just finished watching this very underrated gem. A good, solid horror/comedy flick with great acting from Katherine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. It's a werewolf picture that instead of steering away from most of the clichés, reinvents them. But it's more than a werewolf picture; it's a movie about a bond between two young sisters who are obsessed with gore and how far little sister is willing to go to save big sister. Ginger is attacked by a lycan on their drive home and immediately starts noticing physical changes. The funny thing is everyone else is blaming her changes on her period. At times it seemed like an episode of "Goosebumps" (crooked camera angles, some overacting, etc.), and not in a necessarily bad way. This is probably because it was the director, John Fawcett's first full length picture. But overall, it was a very entertaining and fun film that really makes you care about the characters - at least it did for me! And there are some genuinely creepy moments.