Ginger Snaps (2001)

PERIOD PIECE ''Ginger Snaps''' Isabelle fangs out Bite Life

It's a cinch to connect the hairy howling of adolescence with the legend of lycanthropes -- hence ''I Was a Teenage Werewolf'' and Michael J. Fox in ''Teen Wolf.'' But it's a bit of genius to connect werewolfishness to the condition of teenage girls aroused by the onset of menstruation. In Ginger Snaps, a ferocious, funny, gory, and astute Canadian horror parable, the bloody fate of womanhood that befalls death- obsessed, late-blooming, Goth-style Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) coincides with a full moon and an attack by the same beast that has been killing all the local dogs in the girl's boring suburban neighborhood. Soon Ginger is sprouting strange hairs, growing a tail, and coursing with violent hungers, all of which horrify her younger, plainer sister Brigitte (Emily Perkins, sulking nicely), who sets about looking for a cure for Ginger's infection with the help of a pot-dealing friend (Kris Lemche).

Meanwhile, Mom, played with fine, nutty oblivion by Mimi Rogers, remains clueless, which is only right: Although Karen Walton's script gives way to more conventional Halloween horror, director John Fawcett bears in mind the snarky attitude of ''Clueless,'' not to mention the genre-bending wit of TV's ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'' Find this bracing, original little movie where you can: It deserves a cult following among satire-loving, feminist-minded gore aficionados who appreciate a well-made human tail.