the plot: Ginger (Isabelle) and Brigitte (Perkins) Fitzgerald are your typical pair of sarcastic, death-obsessed Goth teenagers living in Bailey Hills, a tiny Ontario suburb. For a class project, they present a slide show of elaborate, gruesomely staged death scenes-evisceration by lawn mower, impalement on a white picket fence, that sort of thing. On the night Ginger gets her first period, a werewolf mauls her while Brigitte looks on in horror. After rushing her sister back home, Brigitte quickly realizes something is not right. A new woman in more ways than one, Ginger flaunts her newfound sexuality and aggressive behavior. She also starts tearing the neighborhood dogs to pieces, and it's up to Brigitte to clean up the mess. While Ginger slowly devolves further and further into wolfdom, Brigitte enlists the aid of a local drug dealer/landscaper (Lemche) to find a cure for Ginger's lycanthropy. All the blood and fangs and boys and hormones strain the relationship between the sisters, though; and as Ginger's victims pile up, Brigitte finds she only has two choices-cure her sister, or join her as a werewolf.

why it's good: Ginger Snaps is the werewolf movie that Cursed wanted to be. In fact, it's a wonder that Cursed was even released, because Ginger is perhaps the definitive modern werewolf movie. It's a clever gorefest that boasts a pair of powerful performances from Isabelle and Perkins. There is nary a false note in Ginger. It's a smart allegory for the teenage years with a viciously funny streak of black humor. Ginger also introduces some new layers to the tired werewolf myth, throwing out the aversion to silver and the constant shape shifting and casting lycanthropy as a kind of biological infection. The film's modest, understated tone and reliance on character dynamics and mounting suspense keep it from spiraling out of control into a lame, effects-heavy movie with a false ending-exactly what happened to Cursed.

why you should own it: Ginger Snaps is unquestionably worth owning; however, horror buffs should take the time to track down the Canadian collector's edition, which has 20 minutes of deleted scenes and other extras. The American version, released by Artisan Entertainment, has nothing but the film.