Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed

This movie picks up a few months after the original brilliant movie concludes, with Bridget trying to find a cure for the affliction she has and on the run from a werewolf that is following her. She's been doing a lot of digging into bloodletting and experimenting with wolfsbane and checking to see how fast she heals but her body is getting used to the treatment and it's only a matter of time before she succumbs fully to the sickness. She seems to be making progress but one night after the library she takes an overdose and is brought into a rehab facility where she is cut off from her treatments and quickly on her way into becoming a beast and the only way to save herself is to get out while she can with the aid of a disturbed young blonde who thinks she's in fantasy comic books.

After the startling originality and greatness of the first movie, I wasn't sure what to expect from a sequel, especially one with subheading that read "Unleashed". Fortunately, it does live up to the name though with a few faults that are to be expected in an ambitious follow-up.

Everything on the production, from acting to directing to story, is top notch and it flows well, perhaps even better than the original, clocking in at an hour and a half and stopping for nobody. The rehab facility has some fairly creepy settings that lend itself well to a werewolf story as the one hunting Bridget ends up hunting quite a few others that are running around as well, upping the body count.

Emily Perkins reprises her role from the original, as does Katherine Isabelle in Bridget's hallucinations, and does a good job of conveying a haunted, hunted girl on her way to becoming something she would rather not, going so far as to maim herself to hide her true nature from the world. There's a pretty cool and PG-13 group masturbation scene that she dreams about as well which is interesting and doesn't detract from the story and instead advances it, using the sexual nature of the werewolf from the original to show how Bridget is feeling more and more like her sister did at the end and how that bodes well for nobody.

The ending is well done though a little unusual, leaving way for a possible sequel that I would like to see. I saw it coming and most viewers probably will since they telegraph it early in the film. Personally I wasn't that big a fan of the blonde girl though she was fun in the role and I didn't like to see her not get her comeuppance. I can understand why Bridget didn't suspect her of anything though since she had a lot on her mind at the time, what with turning into a werewolf and all.

Still, a good movie, especially if you rent it with the first one and do a little back to back action, seeing the progression of the characters and adding a little closure to the saga of Bridget and Ginger. Definately worth a look.