Recent Werewolf Movies I Just Saw for the First Time

Ginger Snaps (three and a half stars total)
Contribution to werewolf movie mythology - replacing silver bullets with drug injection as a means to end the werewolf curse

Not until I watched the movie did I realize that the title's a simple sentence, not a reference to cookies. It's a testament to its cleverness that at first I didn't like Ginger's (as in the one who snaps) younger sister, Brigitte (B for short), but by the end she was my favorite character and my sole (as in old soul) reason to seek out the sequels. She's mature beyond her years, and while we're on the subject, her lack of a menstrual cycle. She's so loyal to her sister, it's criminal. She's goth without wearing any makeup or intentionally being a bad student. Her bedroom is an unfinished basement decorated with Polaroids of fake deaths acted out by her and her sister, each picture stuck to the wall with black, electric tape. This movie has a couple of the most disturbing things I've ever been confronted with in a horror movie, and neither of them have anything to do with fake deaths. I'm referring to blood in urine (I get sick just considering it) and having more than a half dozen teats like a dog (for the first time - a practical purpose for nudity in a horror movie). Blech. Another horror staple since the '60s that gets an intelligent twist here is stoner humor. Normally it feels tacked on for the "coolness" factor, but this time it's an actual stoner that almost saves the day. Until Ginger snaps on him.

Skinwalkers (two and a half stars total)
Contribution to werewolf movie mythology - yee nadlooshi, the Navajo name for werewolves

Worst. Dialogue. Ever. But if you can get past the setup, you're in for a few fun twists. "Luke, I am your father," should give you everything you need to make an informed decision. Sometimes you hear a piece of fiction described as "crossing multiple genres" or "hard to peg," but Skinwalkers (2006) is easily a western, werewolves-at-war, horror-fantasy, family, action movie. If that sounds hokey to you, it's because it is. But if you like formulaic Chuck Norris TV shows or highly conceptual John Carpenter movies, here's some more cartoonish violence for you (from the producers of Resident Evil, 2002 and Wrong Turn, 2003). The practical effects look better than anything on Underworld (2003) plus the bad guys still wear black leather. The main difference between this movie and others of its kind is that there's daylight in this one, except for when that red moon screensaver pops up. When the small-town shootout on Main Street is over, you can hear - you're not going to believe this - birds chirping. I figured the forest looked a little too green to have been filmed on location in my native state of New Mexico, and I was right. What both of the movies reviewed in this post share in common, besides being about werewolves, is Canadian heritage. Ontario, to be more specific.