Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004)

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This takes right up after the first movie, with the further adventures of the surviving sister Brigitte. It’s a good continuation, well made in every way, though it does drag in a few spots. It’s a good sequel overall.

Synopsis

Credits roll as we watch a woman shaving parts that aren’t supposed to be hairy. There’s also a great deal of cutting and bleeding as we hear some things from the first film. There are syringes and drugs being used as we hear about a cure.

Brigitte is in the library as the guy working there hits on her. She shoots him down and wants some books on bloodletting. She’s got a bunch of overdue books so he won’t let her check out.

She has a log book for her injection doses; it’s not a cure, it just delays the change. She imagines her dead sister Ginger warning her about the “cure.” Jeremy, the library guy, comes to her door and thinks that she’s really sick. He puts her in the car as another werewolf attacks the guy. Brigitte staggers off into the snow and passes out.

She wakes up in a hospital, and Alice comes in; she runs the facility. Brigitte asks about Jeremy, but Alice thinks the blood was all Brigitte’s after overdosing. They all think she’s a drug addict because of all the track marks. The whole place is a drug rehab clinic. Brigitte immediately makes a run for it, but it’s not an easy place to escape. They lock her back in her room.

Brigitte goes to group therapy, and there is a vast amount of eye-rolling. Brigitte talks about turning into a werewolf, but the doctor thinks that’s just code for being a lesbian. The blood test comes back as monkshood, which is completely legal and not a stimulant at all; it’s also known as wolfsbane. Another patient, “Ghost,” overhears all this. She reads comic books and knows the connection between wolfsbane and werewolves.

Luke, one of the staff people, brings Brigitte some of her drug in return for sex, but she turns him down.

The next day, everyone throws pennies at ghost until Brigitte puts a stop to it. Ghost asks Brigitte about werewolfism. She notices that Brigitte now has pointy ears. Ginger reappears and tells her to either give in or give up. She ends up cutting the tips of her ears off.

That night, Ghost goes into the abandoned part of the hospital and finds Tyler having sex and giving drugs to one of the other patients. She gets into his stash and takes Brigitte one of her doses. Tyler tells Brigitte no and squirts it all over the floor. She licks it up.

Dr. Brookner then gives a group masturbation lesson for eighteen girls at once. Nope– just a dream when she dozed off during guided meditation. She runs to the mirror and her ears have grown back and her eyes have changed color. We see that there’s a full werewolf outside the hospital, stalking the place. Ghost finds that Rocky the dog has been eaten.

Brigitte finally plays nice with Tyler and gets an injection. Ghost thinks Brigitte killed the dog and blames her, but Brigitte denies it. “It found me,” Brigitte says. Ghost tells her about a way out through the air vents. This takes her to the abandoned section of the hospital where she finds another patient, who’s really stoned. The werewolf attacks the patient as Brigitte watches.

Brigitte meets up with Ghost, who promises she knows a way out. The werewolf attacks Brigitte, but Ghost sets him on fire. They steal a car and get away. Brigitte tells her the story about Ginger and the first film. The other werewolf wants to mate with Brigitte. Ghost has the monkshood, but forgot the needles. They head to Ghost’s grandmother’s house.

Ghost sets a trap for the werewolf, but a deer sets it off instead. Brigitte drinks its blood. They meet with Tyler to get more of her drugs from him. He injects her, but she has some kind of unexpected reaction.

Tyles does something bad to Ghost, and Brigitte grabs a knife. She locks him outside, knowing the werewolf is out there. “Don’t you just love the sound of nature,” asks Ginger as the monster eats Tyler.

Ghost and Brigitte get all “Home Alone” as they set up traps in the house. Ghost shoots at the monster, but it’s actually Alice, who has come looking for them. Brigitte comes in, and she’s not looking good. Brigitte accuses Ghost of lying about Tyler and what happened to her grandmother, but Alice pulls a gun on both of them. The monster attacks, and Alice and Ghost hide in the attic.

The werewolf comes in and sniffs Brigitte before she stabs it. Then she beats it nearly to death with a curling stone. Ghost then kills Alice. Brigitte crawls up out of the basement and asks Ghost to kill her. Ghost locks her in the basement instead.

We see who the real monster of the film is…

Commentary

It drags in several places, but the story is solid and a good continuation of the first film. It had been a few years since we saw the original film, but this one filled in the blanks to cover what we’d forgotten.

We never get the whole truth about Ghost and Grandma Barbara, but it didn’t go well for Barbara.

It’s good!