GINGER SNAPS (2001) editor Brett Sullivan took over directing duties on the sequel, which picks up the story of high-school outcast Brigitte Fitzgerald (Emily Perkins) after she's forced to kill her werewolf sister, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle).
Forced to flee her suburban home after killing Ginger, Brigitte is living in rundown motels, hiding her identity and dosing herself regularly with wolfsbane to counteract the werewolf curse she contracted from Ginger's blood. But wolfsbane isn't a cure; it only delays the onset of transformation, and Brigitte needs ever more frequent doses to keep from becoming a lethal she-bitch. Ginger is stalking Brigitte from beyond the grave, appearing in mirrors and urging Brigitte to stop resisting and give in to the beast within. And a male werewolf is stalking her with lust in his beastly heart. Brigitte's suitor is her downfall: His attack on an incautious dope who makes the fatal mistake of trying to ask Brigitte out lands her in the hospital, where she's taken for a drug addict and remanded to a gloomy rehab center that doubles as a long-term care facility for non-substance abusing patients. Head counselor Alice (Janet Kidder, Margot Kidder's niece) won't let Brigitte go until she's completed the program, and ignores all her carefully couched pleas for release before something terrible happens: Alice was once an addict herself and knows all about junkie scheming and denial. Deprived of her wolfsbane and under constant watch -- especially by lecherous nurse Tyler (Eric Johnson), who trades drugs for sexual favors from pretty patients -- Brigitte knows it's only a matter of time before she changes and wreaks havoc. The one person with any idea of what's really going on is spooky adolescent Ghost (Tatiana Maslany), whose custodial grandmother was burned from head to toe in an accident and lies swaddled like a mummy, watching the world through wide, disturbing eyes. Ghost is at the facility until other accommodations can be found, and spends her days reading and writing horror comics. She latches onto Brigitte with the desperate neediness of a child isolated by her own grisly, overactive imagination. But can she be trusted?
First-time screenwriter Megan Martin avoids the trap of simply rehashing the first film with new characters, instead crafting a very dark fairy tale. There's a little too much running and screaming through dark hallways in the middle, but it comes to a satisfyingly dark conclusion. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh