- Director: John Fawcett
- Writers: Karen Walton, John Fawcett
- Stars: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3cidaDV
Synopsis
A woman and her son play in the backyard until they find their pet dog totally ripped apart. She screams as the credits roll.
Two sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, are talking about death. They like the idea of suicide, but they have this phobia about people watching their dead bodies. Sounds like typical emo goths to me. They stage their own fake, grisly deaths and take pictures of the gore for fun and Internet points.
At hockey practice, Brigitte falls right into yet another dead dog. It’s “the Beast of Bailey Downs” that keeps eating the local dogs. They go out that night to set up a practical joke to scare the mean girl at school and end up finding yet another dog. While they’re out, Ginger starts bleeding; she’s three years late getting her periods, and it’s finally hit.
Out of nowhere, a monster runs in and takes Ginger away. Brigette follows, but only catches up in time to see her viciously mauled by a werewolf. They run away, and the werwolf gets splattered by an oncoming truck. They get home and the bleeding has stopped; actually Ginger’s wounds are already healing.
Brigitte runs into Sam at school the next day, and he jokes about hitting a lycanthrope. Ginger is acting sick all the time, and it’s more than just her first period. The wounds are now growing long hairs. Brigitte mentions that getting bit on a full moon— well, you know what that means. Ginger doesn’t appreciate the idea. They argue a lot, like actual sisters.
Ginger suddenly gives up the baggy goth clothes and starts dressing sluttily, which annoys Brigitte. Sam and Brigitte talk about the animal he hit; he really thinks it was a werewolf. Brigitte starts counting down the days until the next full moon. Ginger is literally growing a tail.
Everyone can see that Ginger is changing, but it’s all attributed to her “Growing up.” Turns out, Ginger isn’t hungry for sex, she’s hungry for meat: she eats the family dog. She has sex with a boy and it looks like she may have infected him with it, like an STD. She gets a silver navel ring that really, really hurts. The next day, she beats up the school bully, and no one notices she has fangs when she does it.
They tell Sam that Brigitte is infected, and he doesn’t know that it’s really Ginger. Still, no one comments on her pointy teeth. One thing leads to another, and the two sisters kill the school bully in their kitchen.
Jason, the boy Ginger infected, is wondering what’s going on with his body. He’s growing a tail and claws too.
Finally, Halloween comes, and it’s also time for the full moon. Brigitte finds some Monkshood, which is related to wolfsbane, and she and Sam start working on a cure. Jason attacks her, and she stabs him with the syringe; it seems to work. Meanwhile, Mom starts to get suspicious when she finds a couple of fingers in the backyard.
Then Brigitte heads back to the high school to confront Ginger, who is a lot worse than she was before. Brigitte and Mom have to follow Ginger to the Halloween party at the greenhouse, where Sam and the serum are.
Brigitte slices her hand and Ginger’s as well; she infects herself with Ginger’s blood. They all head home, where the cure is. Meanwhile, Ginger’s metamorphosis continues to progress. Things go badly for Sam, and the two sisters do battle.
Commentary
There aren’t a lot of female werewolf stories out there. The werewolf/menstrual cycle metaphor is beaten into the ground with this one, but it is a good parallel. Most of the fun here is watching the two sisters spiral out of control and try to hide it from everyone. The parents are completely oblivious, to the point where it’s a comedic point to exploit over and over again.
In this film, she slowly changes into a werewolf over a period of a month, but finally does “the big change” on the next full moon. It’s not a sudden shift like in most films.
Jason the werewolf felt a little rushed, and there was never any explanation of where the first werewolf came from or what happened to its body if it was actually dead. At an hour and 48 minutes, this started to feel a little too long toward the end. I’m not immediately sure what I would have cut, but something might have been shortened. It’s a strange combination of not enough coverage for some parts and too much for others. Still, I really did like it.