Before director John Fawcett and writer Karen Walton introduced the world to the Fitzgerald sisters, werewolves had all but vanished from the big screen. In fact, the last theatrical offering of lycanthropic horror, prior to Ginger Snaps, was 1997’s An American Werewolf in Paris. And as one might recall, the reviews for that movie weren’t so hot. So, clearly, the genre was in desperate need of fresh eyes.

Ginger Snaps first emerged some years after what many deem to be the peak of Canadian horror: the 1970s and ‘80s. Or as cinephiles like to call it, the “tax shelter era”. Yet unlike a lot of the movies produced back then (and even now), this cult classic isn’t vague about its story’s location. Rather than passing off the Great White North as the U.S., Ginger Snaps was squarely set in Canada. The fictional suburb of Bailey Downs is indeed an amalgam of multiple places, but nonetheless, it is 100% Canadian.

In an editorial titled “What Canadian Horror Tells Us about Our Deepest Fears”, journalist Harrison Mooney related deep-seated Canadian anxieties to Canadian horror cinema. Although Ginger Snaps wasn’t one of the mentioned titles, Mooney’s notion that Canadian horrors feed on homegrown fears is still applicable. Ginger Snaps is a movie that very much deals with “the loss of control” and “the violent outsider”, as well as the Canadian land itself. That last point—“colonialism has traumatized even the settlers”—is most apparent in the prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning; however, it can also pertain to the trilogy’s other entries.

Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.

Before reaching that period prequel, and after first getting to know the two Fitzgerald sisters, the Ginger Snaps trilogy touches down in an urban locale (really Edmonton). Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed vaguely picks up where the original movie left off, with Brigitte (Emily Perkins) going things alone after losing Ginger (Katharine Isabelle). The cozy-turned-creepy atmosphere of Bailey Downs has also been swapped out with a comprehensively bleaker one as Brigitte endures more than just another harsh Canadian winter.

As with any other sequel intent on not repeating things, Ginger Snaps 2 chronicles a different struggle for its main character. The affliction remains the same as before, but the fight to stave it off is unique to Brigitte Fitzgerald. The movie fully understands that no two werewolves should ever be the same. And ensuring that distinct transformation was a newcomer named Megan Martin. What the screenwriter lacked in sheer experience, she made up for in wild ideas.

After passing the directorial reins to Brett Sullivan, the first movie’s editor, Fawcett stayed on as a producer. Walton’s characters were left in capable hands with Martin, who more than delivered on that potential for familial grief entwined with detachment issues. Naturally, one might worry that Ginger’s demise dampens the possibility of a good story; she is the namesake, after all. On the contrary, Sullivan and Martin found a clever, if not familiar, way to keep Ginger around, all without sacrificing character development for the sequel’s actual protagonist.

Tatiana Maslany in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.

While Ginger Snaps is one of many movies that enthusiastically dispels the myth of safety in the suburbs, Ginger Snaps 2 leans into the idea of cities being crime-ridden and dangerous. Of course, the threat lurking around every corner here is not that forward, but an otherwise harmless librarian (Brendan Fletcher) who was hoping to score Brigitte’s number. No, it’s that mysterious werewolf who has taken a liking to the main character—and then continues to stalk her throughout the story. 

As if the literal beast on her tail wasn’t an ample enough reminder of her own looming fate, Brigitte is also being viciously haunted by her past. That come-and-go-as-she-pleases specter of Ginger, a manifestation born from grief, unresolved trauma, and monkshood abuse, fluctuates between comforting and cruel. She can either soothe little sis during her syringe sessions, or she can sardonically read her as no one else can. 

While it is certainly Isabelle playing the ghost, that depiction is less Ginger and really more Brigitte. This damning evidence of the Fitzgerald girls’ codependency problem—not even death can put an immediate stop to it—shows how Brigitte can only be honest with herself by filtering her thoughts through a likeness of Ginger. Ultimately, though, there is a breakthrough moment for Brigitte; it’s one where she can stop living in her sister’s shadow and, at least for a few minutes, relinquish her overwhelming survivor’s guilt.

Emily Perkins in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.

Werewolf stories are often psychological by nature. Scarcely ever do humans seem to willingly give in to that bone-breaking transformation—that complete lack of self-control. This internal conflict has been there since the beginning of the genre, and movies like Ginger Snaps 2 run away with the concept. So while setting the sequel inside a rehab center feels a little on the nose, that location offers a potent playground for the characters. It’s also one most befitting of gritty, post-Y2K horror.

With its emphasis on psychology, the sequel is constantly studying its characters and how they tick. Brigitte obviously gets the most extensive analysis; on top of Ginger’s intermittent commentary, the Happier Times staff gives its latest in-patient a clinical, and sometimes amusing, evaluation. In addition to Brigitte’s review are these less spoken assessments of the supporting characters. These particular deuteragonists, such as that deceptively clean-cut orderly (Eric Johnson) who trades drugs for sex, are key components in the movie’s overall sense of weirdness.

Of all those offbeat side characters who make Ginger Snaps 2 an unusual, not to mention worthwhile, viewing, Tatiana Maslany’s Ghost is the most influential. Almost always doing or saying something that provokes unease, Ghost is fascinating enough to warrant her own movie. It would be hard to convince anyone this petite, blonde, and twisted teen is lovable, yet that growing instability of hers becomes a surprising source of entertainment in the sequel. So, yes, this movie absolutely found someone more frightening than a werewolf, and her name is Ghost.

Without getting caught up in any arguments about which of the first two movies is better, Ginger Snaps 2 is an impressive follow-up. Fully doing its own thing and not trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice, the second movie is tailor-made for cinephiles who crave bold and very strange sequels.

Emily Perkins in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.