Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) Review

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) Review

Ginger Snaps 2 wasn’t as good as the first Ginger Snaps, and one of the main reasons, for me, was the lack of Katherine Isabelle as Ginger. Though the choice to focus on Brigitte as the main character was unexpected but ultimately satisfactory, I still missed the sisterly banter and the intriguing ferocity of Isabelle’s character. So with both of them returning for Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, the third and final film in the trilogy, which is also a prequel, it seemed like this was a chance for a third film in a horror franchise to top the second film, which I can’t recall happening many times, if at all. Sadly, this threequel takes a very strange direction. 

We jump back in time to 19^th century Canada, and follow Ginger and Brigitte, who are identical in names, personalities, and appearances to the characters from the previous films…only, they aren’t the same. This isn’t a time travel situation, it’s more like an alternate reality version, where they just happen to be in an earlier time period. So why did the filmmakers choose to alter the setting? I found it a very bizarre choice. When the movie begins, the sisters are on horseback, lost in the woods, and are saved by a dashing, mysterious hunter, who takes them back to a fort. The first thing that’s sorely missing is the modern day nomenclature. No funny slang, no teenage angst. The girls are just…kind of boring. 

Sure enough, werewolves attack the fort, and in terms of werewolf action, they jam as much in there as budget can allow. Some of it is suitably exciting, but the action comes in sporadic spurts, and when there isn’t something werewolf-related happening, the story is pretty dull. It’s also disappointing to find the basic story of the first movie is largely repeated, with Ginger getting bitten, although this time it’s by a strange deformed boy. There are some moments of extreme gore, which is one element that’s improved from the second film, but overall, it’s inferior to the previous film, and a far cry from the excellence of the first. 

I don’t have a lot else to say about Ginger Snaps Back. Removing the contemporary setting was a misstep, and the story fails to be as original or as intriguing as before. If you were a big fan of the other two, I’d say check it out for curiosity’s sake. It does have some decent moments of werewolf action, and though neither lead is as charismatic as in the original film, having both sisters saves it from being unwatchable. 

Tomorrow, we begin to take a look at the adaptations of the novels by Thomas Harris, featuring the most infamous cannibal in all of modern horror, Hannibal Lecter!