Horror movie survival Randy Meeks style: Ginger Snaps

We are all familiar with Scream’s Randy Meeks’ rules to successfully survive a horror movie, but if the characters from Ginger Snaps had known them too, would they have survived?

Back in 2000, John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps made its rounds at a couple of film festivals, gaining praise for its combination of horror, coming-of-age, and dark humor, the performance of its leads, and the make-up and special effects. Even so, Ginger Snaps suffered from a poor marketing strategy that kept it hidden from many horror fans for a long time. But the horror community is a good one, and the movie has gained a cult following, becoming a must-watch among horror fans.

Ginger Snaps mixes lycanthropy, puberty, and the relationship of two sisters as they deal with these themes and more, with a good dose of blood and gore. So why not watch it under the Randy Meeks lens? Let’s get to it.

Ginger Snaps in a Nutshell

Sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte Fitzgerald (Emily Perkins) have a fascination with death and formed a pact to die together. Of course, this and more have made them outcasts and brought them a few unwanted enemies, such as school bully Trina Sinclair.

One night, as the sisters go out to kidnap Trina’s dog, Ginger gets her first period and is attacked by a wild creature. Her wounds heal just minutes after the attack and she undergoes physical and mental transformations much to the concern of Brigitte.

Sounds crazy? Yes, because it is. But it’s so well executed that you will forget that lycanthropy is only fictional. Plus, all the effects are practical. Who doesn’t love practical effects?

Back to the movie and the rules, Randy said: you can never have sex, you can never drink or do drugs, and never (ever) under any circumstances say “I’ll be right back”. And all of these apply to our subject.

Rule: You Can Never Drink or Do Drugs

I had to make a diagram-of-sorts to make sure my theory for this makes sense. For my next trick, I will do my best to explain it.

When Ginger is going through the first “stages” of her transformation (or “symptoms”, however you want to call them), she has some really bad cramps. Enter: Jason McCardy, popular boy who wants to be with Ginger (you perfectly know what I mean) and takes advantage of this and tells her that smoking weed will help her with the pain.

Ginger, Jason, and his friends go to their local drug dealer’s van (his name is Sam, by the way) to smoke, but when Sam kicks them out, they run into Trina and her dog, which goes crazy on Ginger and tries to attack her.

Days later, after Ginger beats Trina at school for pushing Brigitte, Trina’s dog disappears and Trina goes to the Fitzgerald’s house to confront Ginger and Brigitte as she is convinced they did something to their dog. Ginger restrains her and as Trina tries to escape and defend herself, she slips, hits her head, and dies.

Now, my diagram-worthy theory goes as follows: had Ginger not agreed to smoke weed, she wouldn’t have run into Trina and her dog, and no one would have seen the dog’s reaction towards Ginger, thus not making her (nor Brigitte) primary suspects when the dog disappeared. And Trina would have lived.

Don’t do drug, kids. Randy said so.

Rule: You Can Never Have Sex

Among the “symptoms” Ginger went through was a strong sexual desire, which led her to have sex with the aforementioned Jason. Unprotected sex. Little did they (or anyone, really) know, Ginger’s “condition” can be sexually transmitted, and so Jason began to transform as well.

Jason survives, and his transformation was stopped for a while after Brigitte, in self-defense, injected him with some monkshood solution, proving that it could be used as a cure.

But hey, had they not had sex, Jason wouldn’t have gone through the painful (and disgusting, if we’re being honest) transformation. Though Ginger would have probably gone for someone else.

Rule: Never (Ever) Under Any Circumstances Say “I’ll Be Right Back”

Now, this is an interesting one. That exact line is spoken by Brigitte as she, Sam, and a fully transformed Ginger arrive to their house. Brigitte says “I’ll be right back” as she is about to check if her dad is home, but stops when Sam realizes there’s a problem with the van’s door that needs to be fixed… which allows Ginger to escape and run into the house.

Brigitte managed to survive that one, but minutes later, as she and Sam are hiding in the pantry and preparing the cure, Sam insists on going after Ginger. He doesn’t explicitly say “I’ll be right back” or anything close but that was the intention. And he didn’t come back.

Nothing would have changed had Brigitte not said the line and had Sam not gone after Ginger. I’m pretty sure Ginger would have attacked Sam whether he was the one with the syringe or not.

So yes: Brigitte survived after saying the exact line while Sam, who had all the intention of coming back, didn’t. Rest in peace, Sam.

Conclusion

If Ginger Snaps had followed Randy’s Rules, a lot would have changed, yet the fate of the main characters would have been the same. Trina would have survived, but Sam would have died anyway.

As for Jason, he wouldn’t have been “infected” but someone else would have. Or even if Ginger wouldn’t have had sex with anyone, that wouldn’t have changed the following events, other than not knowing if the cure worked but they would have tried it on Ginger anyway.

Was Randy right? Yes, yes he was.

Which movies should we apply “Randy’s Rules” to? Let us know!