Brigitte Fitzgerald

Last updated
Brigitte Fitzgerald
Brigitte Fitzgerald.jpg
Emily Perkins as Brigitte Fitzgerald in Ginger Snaps
First appearance Ginger Snaps (2000)
Created by
Portrayed by Emily Perkins
In-universe information
NicknameBrige, Bee
Species
GenderFemale
OccupationHigh school student
Family
  • Ginger Fitzgerald (sister)
  • Pamela Fitzgerald (mother)
  • Henry Fitzgerald (father)
  • Brigitte Fitzgerald I (ancestor)
  • Ginger Fitzgerald I (ancestor)
  • Montgomery Fitzgerald (ancestor)
Nationality Canadian

Brigitte Fitzgerald is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Ginger Snaps film trilogy. She was portrayed by Emily Perkins.

Contents

Development

Production and design

Brigitte Fitzgerald was the concept of Canadian screenwriter Karen Walton and film director John Fawcett. The first film in the Ginger Snaps trilogy examines Brigitte's relationship with her sister Ginger and how Brigitte's connection with a local "pretty-boy pusher" to find a cure for Ginger's lycanthropy transformation threatens to undermine the unbreakable bond established between the two in a pact. For Brigitte's portrayal, much of the "emotional burden [is placed] squarely on Emily Perkins' fragile shoulders". She undergoes several transitions: from "hero worship to independence as she tries to hang onto her sisterly bond" and "frightened goth mouse to something like the little werewolf hunter who could". In all, the entire premise of the movie showcases "a duet between Perkins's Brigitte and Katharine Isabelle's Ginger". [1]

Appearances

Brigitte Fitzgerald appears as the younger of the two Fitzgerald sisters (Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald) in all three films in the Ginger Snaps trilogy.

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Premise

The film takes place in the town of Bailey Downs, Canada, in October 1999. During this time period, an unknown beast nicknamed the "Beast of Bailey Downs" has been killing the town's dogs.

Brigitte, the second daughter of Pamela and Henry Fitzgerald, is a bright 15-year-old with a love for biology, having skipped a grade. She and her sister Ginger share a close bond, growing up inseparable. Both are introverted nihilists, disdainful of modern society and fascinated by death. Their unconventional views and delayed onset of menstruation isolate them from peers. At eight, they made a blood pact to be "united against life," vowing to move out at 16 or face death together. Brigitte looks up to her older sister Ginger, who assumes a leadership role despite occasional ridicule. The sisters have a strained relationship with their parents, who play a passive and irritating role, effectively absent as guiding figures.

Story

The film begins on an atypical day in high school for Brigitte, finding out that Ginger, her sister, has started her period. That night on a full moon, Brigitte rescues Ginger from a beast attack. Observing Ginger's unnatural rate of healing from the attack and not knowing what attacked them, with no answers and no other choice, Brigitte breaks with her "introverted" persona to connect with local high-school drug dealer Sam (who ran over the beast chasing the sisters, saving them) for more information; he suggests the beast might be a lycanthrope.

Brigitte discovers physical and mental changes in Ginger, reminiscent of puberty, such as hair sprouting from wounds and heavy menstruation. She is dismayed by Ginger's flashy appearance and aggressive, particularly sexual, behavior. Like her sister, Brigitte begins to "grow up" and gains confidence. However, she starts antagonizing Ginger for embracing the changes, conflicting with their childhood pact to be "united against life." Brigitte becomes more distant from her sister and finds new company in Sam. After learning about Ginger killing a neighbor's dog, Brigitte tries a proposed silver ring piercing treatment by Sam, which proves ineffective.

On Halloween, Brigitte obtains monkshood from her mother and seeks further help from Sam. Meanwhile, Ginger, angered by what she perceives as Brigitte's "betrayal" and the belief that Brigitte has chosen Sam over her, refuses to assist Brigitte in the future. Brigitte discovers that Ginger takes pleasure in her violent impulses after Ginger murders two school faculty members, leading to a confrontation where Brigitte berates Ginger. To Brigitte's dismay, Ginger makes a definitive decision, revokes their childhood pact, and declares she no longer wants anything to do with Brigitte, leaving her behind.

Later at the Greenhouse Bash Halloween party, Brigitte discovers Ginger harming Sam, who rejected Ginger's sexual advances. At her breaking point, Brigitte insists that Ginger take her life instead to stop hurting everyone. Determinedly, Brigitte inflicts a palm wound on herself and Ginger, mixing the two girls' blood to signify Brigitte's loyalty to her sister. Brigitte and Sam take Ginger, who is rapidly undergoing the final stages of transformation into a werewolf, to the Fitzgerald house to create more cure. Brigitte is seen feeling numb and later experiences a fainting episode, indicating her beginning transition as well.

At the Fitzgerald house, a fully transformed Ginger escapes, but Brigitte and Sam successfully create more cure in the kitchen closet amidst the turmoil. Sam proposes to Brigitte to take the cure herself, and the two of them run away together, but Brigitte, despite also showing affection for Sam, values her loyalty to her sister more and refuses his request. Sam goes to administer the cure but is dragged away. Brigitte goes after them and finds a Ginger-wolf with a weakened Sam. Trying to prove her loyalty to Ginger, Brigitte starts to drink Sam's blood but can't continue, making Ginger, in a fit of rage, kill Sam.

Cornering Ginger in the sisters' bedroom, Brigitte, at last realizing that Ginger never appreciated her and knowing that Ginger took away Sam from her, fully breaks away from the sisters' childhood pact to be "out by sixteen or dead in this scene, but together forever" and defiantly states that she will not die in the room with her. Ginger, angered by Brigitte, lets her werewolf instincts take over and lunges toward Brigitte. Brigitte accidentally kills Ginger as the werewolf lunges into her knife. The film ends with Brigitte holding on to the dying Ginger and unused syringe and sobbing.

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004)

In Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed , Brigitte returns as the main character, with her sister Ginger, as a minor character, appearing as a hallucination to her. After the events of the first film, Brigitte is on the run, focusing on seeking the antidote for her condition, but accidentally overdoses on monkshood antidote and is treated in a rehabilitation center. She tries to deny Ginger's warnings and her coercing of Brigitte to accept her transition. Compared to the first film Ginger Snaps, Brigitte is more determined and confident in herself and no longer relies on her sister for help. Despite her best efforts, she transitions into a werewolf with rapid progression. At the end of the film, she is a full werewolf, irreversible to changing back into a human. Ghost narrates that Brigitte is getting stronger and is waiting to be unleashed on her enemies.

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

This film is the prequel to Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed and features Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald together in person, set in early 1800's colonial Canada. Together with her sister, Brigitte is a lost orphan to Canadian explorers. Compared with the other two films in the series, Brigitte and Ginger act more or less as equals in their sister relationship, with Brigitte becoming more confident in herself but not antagonizing her sister as in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. The sisters have a close bond and always stick together. Their past is unknown from the storyline. Brigitte is the ancestor of modern-day Brigitte Fitzgerald about 200 years later.

At the end of the film, both of them are outside the burning fort huddling in the snow. When Brigitte states that she is cold, Ginger quotes "I'm not". Brigitte cuts her hand and presses it against a cut on Ginger's hand, mixing their blood and infecting herself with the curse as well.

Reception

Cultural impact

The challenges of young women as they reach adolescence are examined in Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. Brigitte embodies the anxious young girl as she transitions into an adolescent- and with it the additional stresses of puberty. In Ginger Snaps, she feels uncomfortable being in her own skin and does not look forward to womanhood. [2] [ unreliable source? ]

Related Research Articles

<i>Ginger Snaps</i> (film) 2000 Canadian comic horror film

Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed. The film stars Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle as Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, two morbid teenage sisters whose relationship is tested when Ginger is attacked and bitten by an unknown animal, and then later, during the next full moon, slowly starts to transform into a lycanthrope (werewolf). The supporting cast features Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, and Mimi Rogers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Isabelle</span> Canadian actress

Katharine Isobel Murray, known professionally as Katharine Isabelle, is a Canadian actress. She has been described as a scream queen due to her roles in various horror films. She started her acting career in 1989, playing a small role in the television series MacGyver. She gained fame for the role of Ginger Fitzgerald in the films Ginger Snaps, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Perkins</span> Canadian actress (born 1977)

Emily Jean Perkins is a Canadian former actress, known for her roles as Crystal Braywood in the TV series Hiccups, young Beverly Marsh in Stephen King's It, and Brigitte Fitzgerald in Ginger Snaps. Since the late 1980s, she has appeared in various films and television series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werewolf fiction</span> Fantasy genre

Werewolf fiction denotes the portrayal of werewolves and other shapeshifting therianthropes, in the media of literature, drama, film, games and music. Werewolf literature includes folklore, legend, saga, fairy tales, Gothic and horror fiction, fantasy fiction and poetry. Such stories may be supernatural, symbolic or allegorical. A classic cinematic example of the theme is The Wolf Man (1941) which in later films joins with the Frankenstein Monster and Count Dracula as one of the three famous icons of modern day horror. However, werewolf fiction is an exceptionally diverse genre, with ancient folkloric roots and manifold modern re-interpretations.

<i>Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed</i> 2004 Canadian film

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed is a 2004 Canadian horror film, written by Megan Martin and directed by Brett Sullivan. It is the second installment in the Ginger Snaps series and sequel to Ginger Snaps (2000), directed by executive producer John Fawcett and written in collaboration with Karen Walton. A prequel, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, was filmed back-to-back with Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed and was also released in 2004.

<i>Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning</i> 2004 film

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning is a 2004 Canadian horror film and a prequel to Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. The third and final installment in the Ginger Snaps series takes place in 19th century Canada, following the ancestors of the Fitzgerald sisters of the two previous films: Ginger and Brigitte, who are identical in all respects to their modern-day counterparts.

<i>King of Thorn</i> Japanese manga series

King of Thorn is a Japanese fantastique manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Iwahara. It was published by Enterbrain in the seinen magazine Monthly Comic Beam between October 2002 and October 2005 and collected in six bound volumes. It is licensed in North America by Tokyopop, with the final volume published in November 2008. The series is about a group of people who are put in suspended animation to escape a mysterious plague that turns people to stone, and upon waking there appears to be only seven survivors in a world run wild—including a Japanese teenage girl named Kasumi Ishiki and a British man named Marco Owen. The survivors soon discover that the entire ruin is filled with strange, dinosaur-like creatures and other monstrous aberrations of nature. Thinking that a great amount of time passed since their arrival on the island, soon the survivors discover not only that their sleep was indeed too short to label such dramatic changes as natural occurrence, but also that the situation in and of itself is far greater than they could imagine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sookie Stackhouse</span> Fictional character created by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse is a fictional character and protagonist of The Southern Vampire Mysteries book series, written by Charlaine Harris. In HBO's television adaptation, True Blood, Sookie is portrayed by Anna Paquin.

Yvonne Adelaide "Evie" Romain is a British former film and television actress of the late 1950s and 1960s.

Ilona Otto, now known as Ilona Brokowski, is a German voice actress. She was originally a theater actress, but gave this up later. She then went on to earn a diploma in psychology at the Free University of Berlin.

Blue Bloods is a series of vampire novels by Melissa de la Cruz. The series is set in Manhattan, New York. The complete series comprises seven books: Blue Bloods, Masquerade, Revelations, The Van Alen Legacy, Misguided Angel, Lost in Time, and Gates of Paradise. The author also wrote two companion novels, Keys to the Repository and Bloody Valentine, along with two spin-off series, Wolf Pact and Witches of East End. Blue Bloods: A Graphic Novel was published on January 15, 2013, also the publication date of the final novel in the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Salvatore</span> Fictional character

Stefan Salvatore is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists from L. J. Smith's novel series The Vampire Diaries. He is portrayed by Paul Wesley in the television series CW's The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Stefan grew up in the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. He grew up next to his brother, Damon Salvatore, his father, Giuseppe Salvatore and at the start of his life grew up with his mother, Lillian Salvatore before supposedly died of consumption, later revealing that she faked her own death and lived as a vampire in secret. As Stefan grew up, he was known as the good child in the family, unlike his brother, Damon Salvatore, who had a knack for trouble. As Stefan and Damon grew up, both boys grew to not like their father because of his abusive ways. Damon Salvatore joined the army, and Stefan was left to live with his father for a couple of months. Once Damon came back, the two were turned into vampires in 1864, in the town of Mystic Falls at the age of 17, by Katerina Petrova, who both brothers loved immensely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damon Salvatore</span> Fictional character in The Vampire Diaries

Damon Salvatore is a fictional character In L. J. Smith's novel series The Vampire Diaries. He is portrayed by Ian Somerhalder in the television series. Damon is one of the two main protagonists along with Stefan Salvatore, especially in the story's main setting, Mystic Falls.

<i>The Boy Who Cried Werewolf</i> (2010 film) American Film

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf is a 2010 Nickelodeon made-for-television comedy horror film starring Victoria Justice, Chase Ellison, Matt Winston, Brooke D'Orsay, Steven Grayhm, and Brooke Shields. The screenplay was written by Art Edler Brown and Josh Nick. It was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

<i>Le Viol du Vampire</i> 1968 French film

Le Viol du Vampire is a 1968 film directed by Jean Rollin. It was his directorial debut. The film consists of two parts: The Rape of the Vampire and The Vampire Woman/Queen of the Vampires. Originally, the film was only supposed to be a short, but a second part was filmed and added later so that it could be released as a feature film.

<i>The Wolves of Mercy Falls</i>

The Wolves of Mercy Falls is a series of four novels, located in the genres of romance, fantasy and young adult (YA) fiction, written by number one bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater. Published by American multinational company Scholastic from between 2009 and 2014, the series consists of the titles Shiver, Linger, Forever and Sinner. Set in the fictional town of Mercy Falls, Stiefvater has stated that the real town of Ely in Minnesota would be its closest neighbouring destination, with the two towns sharing a similar climate.

<i>Blood of Dracula</i> 1957 American film

Blood of Dracula is a 1957 American black-and-white horror film directed by Herbert L. Strock, and starring Sandra Harrison, Louise Lewis and Gail Ganley. It was co-written by Aben Kandel and Herman Cohen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginger Fitzgerald</span> Fictional character

Ginger Fitzgerald is a fictional character and the anti-villain of the Ginger Snaps trilogy. She is the sister of Brigitte Fitzgerald. Ginger was portrayed by Katharine Isabelle while her werewolf form is performed by Nick Nolan.

References

  1. Taylor, Charles (October 26, 2001). "Ginger Snaps". Archived from the original on 2008-12-04.
  2. Fleming, Kaleigh (2020-06-24). "Queering Brigitte Fitzgerald". Medium. Retrieved 2020-07-18.