The Underrated ‘Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed’

Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany’s first film role in the indie werewolf movie Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed is a fascinating precursor to her later work in fan-favorite Orphan Black and the MCU’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Ginger Snaps 2 is in some ways a superior film to the original, in no small part to Maslany’s star turn as the precociously creepy young character Ghost. With the recent trailer release of the actress’s spooky new movie Keeper, a revisit of the movie that started her career is in order.

‘Ginger Snaps 2’ Takes the Events of the First to a Whole New Bloody Level

Emily Perkins as Brigitte and Tatiana Maslany as Ghost in Ginger Snaps 2 Unleashed
Lionsgate Films

The Ginger Snaps films make up an indie Canadian horror franchise about the werewolf-cursed Fitzgerald sisters. Of these, many fans and critics believe that the second movie is the best (and certainly the darkest). While all three of the movies contain actresses Katherine Isabelle as Ginger and Emily Perkins as Brigitte, only Unleashed features Tatiana Maslany as the new character, Ghost. Much of the franchise concerns the tumultuous relationship between the sisters Ginger and Brigitte, and Ghost is both an interesting complication and a reflection of the sisters’ own tortured sibling dynamic.

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed takes place after the tragic events of the first film, in which werewolf-infected Ginger has to essentially be “put down” by her younger sister. Paradoxically, and possibly out of the madness of grief, Brigitte purposely infects herself with her sister’s tainted blood and now spends the sequel fighting the urge to “wolf out” and cause carnage. Trapped in an inpatient drug rehabilitation hospital, she meets young Ghost, who is there to visit her seriously burned grandmother.

In the first movie, the more passive and bookish Brigitte took a backseat to her aggressive sister, but with the addition of Ghost (and Brigitte’s new werewolf condition), the roles are reversed. Ghost appears to idolize the older girl, and, much as Brigitte did with Ginger in the original, tries to help her when she “wolfs out.” It all seems like a somewhat positive development in the otherwise sad life of Brigitte Fitzgerald, except for one small problem: Ghost is apparently a maniac.

Tatiana Maslany Slays as Ghost in ‘Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed’

Lionsgate

Quite simply, Tatiana Maslany’s performance as Ghost is probably one of the most disturbing cinematic portrayals of evil children of all time. Even at the tender age of around 17 and with a full head of the brightest bleached-blond hair you have ever seen, Maslany brings incredible depth and complexity to the role. While she never truly feels 100% “likable,” Ghost starts out as being at least somewhat sympathetic, a lonely orphan who is obsessed with comic books. She loves comics so much that she cuts them up to create new collage versions of her own, and even narrates out loud various events in her life as if they were captions on a page. When she meets Brigitte, not only does the older girl seem like the perfect sister she never had… but her werewolf powers seem to make her (to Ghost, at least) a real-life superhero.

This situation would all be somewhat charming if it were not for the fact, as mentioned before, that Ghost is evil. As the grisly events in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed pile up towards its bloody finish, it becomes crystal clear that Ghost is probably more dangerous than any werewolf could ever be. Through it all, Tatiana Maslany is extremely believable as Ghost, being able to turn from happy to sad, to seemingly afraid, to deeply sinister at the drop of a hat. It takes an actress of great skill to “sell” such a complex character, and not have it come off as campy or cartoonish. Watching Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, one definitely sees the brilliant performer Maslany would become. And in the biggest of ironies, the actress who once played a comic book-obsessed character would later star as the superhero She-Hulk herself.

While the first movie sets up the Fitzgerald sisters’ tortured sibling dynamic, Ghost takes it to a whole new complex level. If you’re a fan of Orphan Black or just want to prepare for the promised scares of Keeper, be sure to check out Maslany’s wild first movie.

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed

Release Date

January 30, 2004

Runtime

94 minutes

Director

Brett Sullivan

Writers

Megan Martin

Producers

Grant Harvey, Jason Constantine, John Fawcett, Noah Segal, Paula Devonshire

• Emily Perkins

  Brigitte Fitzgerald

• Katharine Isabelle

  Ginger Fitzgerald

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