Father and child sit together smiling while looking at a smart phone.

Want more recommendations for your family?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter for entertainment inspiration

Parents' Guide to

Ginger Snaps

By Sarah Wenk, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Very, very violent horror flick.

Movie R 2000 108 minutes
Ginger Snaps Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

See all
age 14+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Paul C.
Paul C. Adult
March 23, 2018
age 14+

A great horror film with an important theme!

Of course, some won't like it because it is excessively violent and contains sexual behaviour, but that's entirely the point. It's ENTIRE theme is about puberty, in females to be exact. The excessive violence and sexual behaviour of the titular character is a direct representation of rabid hormones in teenagers taken to excess. It's about the misrepresentation of "teens gone crazy" in media taken to the extreme of murder and the spread of sexual disease. It's about the inability of parents to PROPERLY communicate with their children. So, if your children care about themes in film (and some do, don't kid yourself), let your teenager watch this film. Discuss it with them. Pretend that they're becoming an adult and dealing with similar issues that the characters are dealing with. And lastly, your "expert" opinion is incredibly wrong here. The message of this film works incredibly in contrasting puberty and lycanthropy, hence why horror fans AND academics love this film! More than a decade after release, academia STILL is releasing books about it!

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Too much violence
helsingmusique
helsingmusique Adult
October 30, 2014
age 12+

Great Movie

See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Teenagers love horror movies, and GINGER SNAPS has plenty of scares and blood and monsters. Sisters Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) are obsessed with death -- one of the puns on the movie's title is the series of photographs they take of each other in various forms of lifelessness. But one night Ginger crosses a new line -- she gets her period. At nearly the exact same moment, she is attacked by a werewolf, and begins to become one herself.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (13 ):

Teenagers who are into horror may enjoy this, though they may not pick up on the "message" it's trying to convey. Ginger Snaps attempts to create a metaphor -- menstruation and the changes it brings to personality and sexuality are like the raging blood lust of the werewolf. There's something interesting in that parallel, but ultimately the film doesn't follow through on the idea, but becomes simply a parade of attacks, some brutal, some darkly funny. The two girls give very strong performances, particularly Perkins, and Brigitte's own transformation from mousy sidekick to werewolf hunter is impressive. It's refreshing to see a young girl take on the hero's role in this kind of film.

As a horror film it works fine. As a satiric commentary on adolescence, it doesn't succeed quite as well. It's extremely violent, and parents should use discretion in allowing their children to see it. Older teens will think it's fine, but younger kids could be terrified.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Ginger and Brigitte's obsession with death, their very strong bond to each other, and how Ginger's maturation changes that. You might want to ask your teens what they think the appeal of movies like this is in the first place.

Movie Details

Inclusion information powered by

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate