Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed.

The supporting cast features Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, and Mimi Rogers.

After premiering at the Munich Fantasy Filmfest in August 2000 and screening at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival, Ginger Snaps received a limited theatrical release in May 2001.

One night, while on their way to kidnap a dog owned by school bully Trina Sinclair, Ginger begins her first period.

Brigitte seeks out Sam to obtain information on what his van struck, and they agree that Ginger was attacked by a werewolf and is transforming into one.

After a silver navel piercing proves ineffective as a remedy, Sam suggests infusing an extract of monkshood, also known as wolfsbane, a perennial plant often referred to in lycanthrope folklore.

She drives Brigitte to the Greenhouse Bash, telling her that she will erase the evidence of Trina's death by burning their house down.

[6][better source needed] Director John Fawcett has said: "I knew that I wanted to make a metamorphosis movie and a horror film.

[7] In January 1995, he talked to screenwriter Karen Walton, who was initially reluctant to write the script due to the horror genre's reputation for weak characters, poor storytelling, and a negative portrayal of women.

The Toronto Star's announcement that Telefilm was funding a "teen slasher movie" met with a flurry of debate and outrage in the media, which generated a significant amount of adverse publicity in proportion to the size of the project.

Mimi Rogers readily agreed to play the mother, Pamela, saying that she liked the black humour and comic relief in the role.

[7] Robin Cook, the Canadian casting director, put forward one of her favourites, Kris Lemche, for the role of drug dealer Sam.

[7] In 2021, Fawcett revealed that Scarlett Johansson was originally offered the role of Brigitte, but her mother did not want her involved after reading a National Post article about a boycott of the film by casting directors in Canada.

Director of photography Thom Best solved the problem by using diffusion gel and four eighteen kilowatt lamps which generated enough light to be seen a mile high in the sky.

[10] Often covered in sticky fake blood that required Borax and household detergent to remove, she further endured wearing contacts that hindered her vision and teeth that meant she could not speak without a lisp.

The most aggravating thing was the full facial prosthetic which gave her a permanently runny nose that she had to stop with cotton swabs.

The following month, it played at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it briefly received media attention following the positive word-of-mouth it had built up from Munich.

The site's consensus reads: "The strong female cast and biting satire of teenage life makes Ginger Snaps far more memorable than your average werewolf movie – or teen flick".

[13] Critics' praise was centered on the quality of acting by the two leads, the horrific metamorphosis reminiscent of Cronenberg,[14][15] the use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty, and the dark humour.

[20] It is ranked 78 on Time Out London's list of 100 best horror films, Tom Huddleston calling it "the best teenage werewolf movie, period".

[21] Critics who panned the film thought the puberty metaphor was too obvious, the characters too over-the-top (especially the mother), and the dark humour and horror elements unbalanced.

Feminist scholar Bianca Nielsen wrote: "By simultaneously depicting female bonds as important and fraught with difficulties, Ginger Snaps portrays the double-binds teenage girls face.

Ginger is an embodiment of these impossible binaries: she is at once sexually attractive and monstrous, 'natural' and 'supernatural', human and animal, 'feminine' and transgressive, a sister and a rival".

[39] The music video for Sabrina Carpenter's "Taste" features a visual reference to the scene where a character is impaled by a white picket fence.