Werewolves. It's a simple fact that any film, no matter how great or poor, can easily be improved with a werewolf. Revolver by Guy Ritchie for example would have been worth suffering through if in the final five minutes the entire cast had been ripped apart by a lycanthrope. At the other end of the scale a tremendous movie such as Brokeback Mountain would have been even more memorable if Jack and Ennis were returning each year to try and kill Randy Quaid's werewolf as well as get their jolly's off.
We fucking love werewolves here at Londonist. Vampires... pretty good we suppose (although vampire slayers tend to be cuter), but it's all a bit dainty that neck biting. Throat ripping... now that's passion.
So colour us excited and dripping when we heard that one of the special events at this year's Sci Fi London fest is a panel discussion entitled Menstrual Monsters - The Ginger Snaps Trilogy and Its Audience. Star of the trilogy Emily Perkins will be on hand and there'll be an accompanying screening of the first film:
Ever since Psycho (1960), the portrayal of women in the modern horror film has been the subject of much criticism. Either horror heroines are represented as virginal heroines who survive because of their ‘masculine’ qualities, or else they are reduced to the role of passive victims whose sexual desires effectively seal their fate. But is that all there is? The contemporary horror film seems to be taking the critics to task by challenging this apparently reductive split in female representations. In particular, by emphasising the explosive expression of repressed female rage, the Ginger Snaps trilogy has re-written the rules of what the contemporary horror film can offer women. Rather than relying on standard depictions of virgins or victims, the series uses horror motifs to explore more complex issues that surround female sexuality. This has lead many reviewers to argue that the Ginger Snaps films contain feminist and even lesbian subtexts, while its images have even provoked an international audience research project that consider fan responses to this fright franchise. In order to explore these issues further, SCI-FI-LONDON and THE CULT FILM ARCHIVE AT BRUNEL UNIVERSITY will be holding a special cinema event on Saturday 29th April entitled Menstrual Monsters: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy and its Audience. The event comprises of screenings of Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000), and the Cult Film Archive’s documentary Menstrual Monsters: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy as well as a panel discussion around the theme of contemporary horror heroines. The panel includes Emily Perkins (star of the Ginger Snaps trilogy), Xavier Mendik (presenter/producer of the documentary Menstrual Monsters: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy), Howard Martin (producer Menstrual Monsters: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy) and Dr Ernest Mathijs (director of an international audience research project on Ginger Snaps fans at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth), who will chair the event.
Just be sure to take some silver with you...
