The first Ginger Snaps-movie is a gem. It is a film about coming-of-age, about dealing with sibling rivalry, awkwardness, sex, death and the uncertainty that comes with being a teenager. The fact that it has werewolves in it makes that film even more remarkable, for it is so much more than just a teen-horror movie. It’s the movie John Hughes would have made if he had been depressed and into scary films. I loved it; I’ve seen it several times. Needless to say I felt some trepidation about watching this third installment of the Ginger Snaps films, when it was thrown into my lap for reviewing purposes.

I did not watch Ginger Snaps II, nor do I intend to voluntarily. For me the story ended with the finale of Ginger Snaps I. But this is supposed to be a prequel, rather than a sequel, and I claim to be an open-minded person, so what the hell: I turned on my dvd-player and gave it a go.

In this movie it is 1815. Ginger and her sister Brigitte find themselves in a Canadian fort that is under siege from werewolves. Ginger is bitten and in order to break the spell, the creature that bit her must be killed to avoid her changing into a werewolf.

The two actresses that did so well in the first movie star here as well, but the comparison ends there because this film is as bad as I feared. The script is a clichéd mess, the characters are dull and obligatory (in 1815 apparently a Canadian fort came standard issue with an honest commanding officer, a drug addicted doctor, a bigot, an insane priest and a noble savage), and rather than setting a mood, the director and cinematographer just use a lot of red lighting.

The best moment in the first Ginger Snaps movie is when one sister says to the other: “I said I’d die for you” and the other sister replies: “No, you said you’d die with me, cause you had nothing better to do”. Take a moment to ponder the marvel of that little exchange. The fact that in this film such dialogue is replaced with exchanges like: “I don’t know where we’ll go, but we’ll go together” tells you precisely what is wrong with this film. It has transformed from a remarkable piece about teen angst into a dime a dozen horror film with furry creatures.

Not to mention the fact that the whole purpose of a prequel is to show what comes before the thing we have already seen. Considering the ending of this movie, there is no way the things in the first movie could ever come to pass. It’s possible that I am just not smart enough to connect the dots between Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps Back, but frankly: I am of average intelligence, so if I don’t get it, lots of other people won’t get it either.

Ginger Snaps Back compares to Ginger Snaps in the same way the second Blair Witch movie compares to the first. Therein lies the paradox: people who liked the first one, will have very little patience with this one, and vice versa.

As for me, I will have to watch Ginger Snaps again to rinse the taste of this lame extract from my mouth and mind.