Monsters On Screen: Ginger Snaps (2000)

'"I knew that I wanted to make a metamorphosis movie and a horror film' was what director John Fawcett said about why he took on the Ginger Snaps project, with Paul Jones Effects Studio handling the special makeup effects that would realized said metamorphosis. When it came to designing Katharine Isabelle's slow transformation into a wolf, Jones recounted; 'John really had an image in his mind for the wolf suit but when it came to the actual transformation, I don't think he'd given it as much thought. He wanted it to be a natural progression. The creature itself, though muscular, is very sickly. As far as the transformations went, he wanted it to have a 'better than Buffy (the Vampire Slayer)' look, which I found very amusing.
My idea was to keep it as subtle as I could, right to the very end. The last stage would have to appear suddenly, because Ginger is changing very quickly at that point. In the stage-two transformation, he wanted to ensure that, if she was noticed by other characters, they would think it was just a very nice, subtle makeup rather than her bone structure actually changing.'

The makeups for Isabelle took between three to five hours to apply depending on complexity - the second stage transformation makeup was a full facial appliance, as well as the chest appliance to simulate having teats like a real wolf. The experience was uncomfortable, as Isabelle recounted to Fangoria;

'It's annoying, and completely tedious, but it does help you get into the role, (...) When you look into the mirror, you appear completely different - you look like some psycho werewolf. You look at your hands, and you've got these massive gloves on, with big nails. And you can't see out of your eyes, because you have these contacts. (...) It really helped me though. Five ours with little paintbrushes at the corners of my eyes, but it did help.

'Your pretty much have to soak your face in alcohol to take it off, (...) There were these horrible chemicals, and it's not like I was taking care of my skin anyway. But now I'm completely prepared for anything. I can't imagine any other movie that has as much screaming and yelling and attacking people, and death, and prosthetics, and crying, and long hours. I'm prepared.'

In yet another interview for Sci-Fi-Online, Isabelle recounted, 'It was interesting. It took five hours to apply and two hours to remove. It was incredibly tedious to sit still for five hours while someone puts a little paintbrush in the corner of your eye. The special effects guy was really great. He would bring in a laptop for me and let me watch DVD’s. So it wasn’t too dull. Because my whole face was covered my skin couldn’t breathe, so my nose would run constantly. As a result I had to have Q-tips stuck up my nose the whole time! I dread to think what people thought when they saw this wolf walking around with 2 Q-tips up her nose! It was fun though.'

There was not enough money for elaborate transformation effects, with the budget stretched as is between the werewolf suit, the Katherine Isabelle makeups, and gore effects (the werewolf seen in a mock horror movie on TV in one scene was a reuse of the Howling-style werewolf suit Paul Jones had supplied to F/X The Series a few years earlier).

Ginger's direct transformation from woman to she-wolf was achieved via prosthetic appliances, as Fawcett recalled; 'It's maybe less makeup-intensive than other werewolf films. (...) There aren't any stretching fingers or anything like that. All the transformations occur between cuts and scenes, so there are no rig cages jutting or faces contorting'.

When it came to Ginger's werewolf form, nicknamed 'Gingerwolf' by the crew, Jones recounted, 'John (Fawcett) actually had the image of the werewolf in his mind for a long time, (...) 'He knew the color, the shape, the feeling he wanted for the creature, so when it came to me designing it, he literally gave me a list of things he wanted, and it was my job to make them work practically around a performer. He said he wanted it to be dangerous-looking, but also extremely sexy. He wanted it to be feminine, aesthetically speaking, but not dainty'.

'We found that there is very little difference between a male and female dog, so when it comes to doing werewolves, they all look very masculine, (...) 'The one way to get away from that was to look not at a dog's body, but a cat's. Not a domestic cat, but a lynx or leopard or cougar - something that has a litheness, but is also extremely deadly when it wants to be. Obviously the head is very lupine, very wolfish, but it still has a lot of line qualities.'

The Gingerwolf presented quite a few problems for Jones' team, '(Fawcett) was very specific about what he wanted, 'I want a werewolf with no fur!' That's new, it's tough to do as well, it was a four legged werewolf and it had a very long skinny body. So I immediately thought of doing a puppet but they nixed it right away, cos it just wasn't practical the way they were gonna shoot it'

'So they brought in a stunt guy, and he ended up doing a good job, but I always try to stay away from stunt guys in suit cos they tend to not act, they just smash through things, there's no nuance in their performance but the guy we got did a pretty good job'.

Jones further elaborated on the Gingerwolf woes, 'The biggest problem with the suit for me, from a technical point of view, was that it had no fur! Whenever you think of werewolves, you think, they're covered in fur, so you can hide zips and snaps and connectors and all the stuff you need to put a suit on, its never one piece'.

'So we ended up making the Ginger suit as two pieces, it was an entire full-body with legs attached and a seperate head (with animatronics) that would snap on. The only reason the Ginger suit actually has hair is because I glued it on and didn't tell John! (...) John, I need some hair, we have zips on it that I have to hide, and we can't glue it in cos the (stuntman inside) is gonna suffocate!'

Thankfully, Fawcett's insistence on the Gingerwolf's diseased appearance helped justify Jones' compromise, 'John also wanted it very feverish and very sickly looking, so we just covered it in a lot of sweat and goo and as soon as you wet down all the hair it goes very slick against the body (hiding the seams) anyway'.

Another werewolf suit was required for the male werewolf that attacks Ginger early in the film, based on the same mould as the Gingerwolf with alterations. The male werewolf suit's head was a static mask with no animatronics installed. as it would only be shot in the dark or in quick cuts.