Having boogied hard to “Ginger Snaps” and being that I was pumped by the tight trailer for this follow- up, I came into this sequel with some anticipation. Having finally seen it, I can say that I dug some of it, but was mostly disappointed.

"Ginger Snaps 2" did start on the right paw with a bleakly stylish opening credit reel and a promising setup that had Brigitte (Perkins) committed with high stakes set against her. The mood at hand was deliciously darker in terms of tone than the original and I adored the slick visual communication of the imposing claustrophobic setting. On a character level, Emily Perkins was the show and carried it like a one-girl army. Her gripping presence was the main reason my eyes stayed on the screen. You go, fellow Canuck! Horror-wise, only one "jolt" stayed with me. Think: coke snorting gal + werewolf + sheet of plastic = YEEHAW! That one was a keeper! Lastly, some of the early humor (which disappeared for the rest of the running time) rubbed my button the right way with that masturbation marathon, in particular, taking me for a loop-the-loop. I didn’t see that one coming! NICE!

But frustratingly, the limp screenplay (which I hear was constantly re-written as the shoot progressed) went on to crash and burn this sequel for me. The stank began with the ample poor dialogue at hand with the worst guilty party, in that respect, being the “love her or hate her” character of Ghost (Maslany). Much to my dismay, the girly kept talking in rhymes or in prose. Here’s one of her many highlights; “Where did it come from? The infinite darkness?” BARRRRRF! Hey cutie, just because you’re a little fruity up there doesn’t mean you can’t talk like regular people. You guessed it; I was on the “hate her” side of the dagger when it came to that tackily named dame. Then, we had the poorly drawn side players who were either boring or solely there to act as cheap “tools” to lead the storyline in its intended and often trivial direction. Yeah, I got so much out of them (sarcasm). To keep the groan festival going, the handling of Ginger’s (Isabelle) glorious "return” was as corny as corn. Her unexplained apparitions ruined some moments and her lines commenting the happenings reeked of Cheese-Wiz. I kept saying to myself: “If Ginger says “It's time” one more time, I’m going to murder my pet snake!” Her presence in the film was useless and felt like it was mostly there simply to justify the title.

It didn’t get much better on a narrative level. The first block set up two very gripping horror inclined plot lines: 1) Brigitte might turn into a werewolf too soon and slaughter everybody in the “loser bin” and 2) A horny male werewolf is on her tail, wanting to do the nasty with her. But instead of diving deep into its potentially horror-heavy bathtub, the story gets lost in the woods instead. The middle section lagged like a pooch in search of a spot to mark and was just plain embarrassing. And since it didn’t know where to go, it padded time with endless yapping and an emphasis on the Brigitte/Ghost relationship. Problem is...I didn’t give a pork’s buttcheek about their tie from the get-go. so that big chunk of bla-bla didn’t fulfill me one bit as I was waiting for something SUBSTANTIAL to happen! Where was the suspense regarding Brigitte’s imminent transformation? So much more could’ve been done with that! Where was the sense of imminent doom regarding that wandering killer male werewolf in heat? I didn’t feel it! Is this a horror movie or an “After School Special”? Sheesh!

This flick was shot in Edmonton, Alberta back-to-back with the lame looking prequel entitled "Ginger Snaps Back". The prequel has Brigitte and Ginger battling werewolves in 19th Century Canada. I hate that "past life" shit! Should’ve taken the sequel’s ending and expanded on that for the third entry.

Look for Margot Kidder's niece, Janet Kidder, playing the part of butch-like Alice in the film.