How Raw chan­nels the bloody com­ing of age of Gin­ger Snaps

“I’m sure it seems like a lot of blood. It’s a peri­od!” explains a cheery school nurse to 15-year-old Gin­ger and her younger sis­ter Brigitte. She goes on to explic­it­ly explain how, ​“A thick, syrupy, volu­mi­nous dis­charge is not uncom­mon and to expect it every 28 days for the next 30 years.” The two teenage girls look com­plete­ly dis­traught and flee from her office to come to terms with this news.

The real­i­ty that young women sud­den­ly lose con­trol of their bod­ies in such a gory fash­ion is beau­ti­ful­ly han­dled with mon­strous rel­ish and copi­ous buck­ets of bloody imagery in both Gin­ger Snaps (direct­ed by John Faw­cett and writ­ten by Karen Wal­ton) and 16 years lat­er in Julia Ducournau’s debut fea­ture Raw.

Gin­ger Snaps glee­ful­ly plays with the female com­ing-of-age expe­ri­ence in all its hor­rif­ic splen­dour via Ginger’s lycan­throp­ic trans­for­ma­tion, which acts as a metaphor for the mood swings, desires and extreme body changes teenage girls go through. Sim­i­lar­ly there is plen­ty of bloody imagery in Raw, which tells the sto­ry of veg­e­tar­i­an Justine’s first year of vet­eri­nary col­lege, where she is forced to eat a raw rab­bit kid­ney by her old­er sis­ter, Alex­ia, as part of a cru­el haz­ing rit­u­al. Both Gin­ger and Jus­tine devel­op insa­tiable appetites for flesh and their fright­en­ing and per­plex­ing pas­sages into wom­an­hood feel per­fect­ly placed in the hor­ror genre.

The sis­ter­ly bond is tru­ly test­ed in both films with the girls’ com­pet­i­tive streaks tak­ing over and lead­ing to bru­tal brawls. Jus­tine has a rage fuelled punch-up with Alex­ia in front of the entire cam­pus after the real­i­sa­tion that she has turned into every­thing she feared and been out­ed. Brigitte does every­thing she can in order to cure Gin­ger but she is so shocked at her behav­iour and so afraid of becom­ing like her that it all ends in bloody disaster.

Before being bro­ken down the sib­ling rela­tion­ships are instruc­tive. Brigitte is com­plete­ly freaked out by the things she wit­ness­es in the bath­room such as the sprout­ing of hair from unex­pect­ed places and Ginger’s dis­card­ed razors filled with fur­ry bits. Alex­ia teach­es Jus­tine about wax­ing her biki­ni line in a glo­ri­ous­ly gross scene. As body parts fly through the air, Justine’s reac­tion deliv­ers a splen­did rejec­tion of con­ven­tion. The sanc­ti­ty of the girls’ bath­room in both films pro­vides a safe space away from men and is a won­der­ful por­tray­al of how some young women only feel com­fort­able reveal­ing truths about their com­ing of age in pri­vate places.

The idea that young girls on the cusp of adult­hood strug­gle with the fact that they will one day have to act a cer­tain way to attract those they thirst for fol­lows a sim­i­lar pat­tern in both films. Gin­ger and Jus­tine change the way they dress and enjoy the atten­tion it brings them. They exper­i­ment with the oppo­site sex and own their sex­u­al encoun­ters by unapolo­get­i­cal­ly tear­ing into the bod­ies of the young men they crave.

The first year of col­lege can be a com­plete mind fuck and Ducour­nau ably trans­lates that mood with woozy, booze-fuelled par­ties and scary ini­ti­a­tion process­es. When Jus­tine makes the move away from home she begins to ques­tion the val­ues her guardians have instilled in her. Raised in a strict veg­e­tar­i­an house­hold Jus­tine is sur­prised to see her old­er sis­ter wild­ly flout their beliefs. Jus­tine has a ter­ri­ble reac­tion to meat at first, she vom­its and her skin flares up but after a vis­it to the cam­pus doc­tor she is seduced by the sug­ges­tion of a fast­ing diet. The chain-smok­ing medic also spins a yarn about a fat girl she once treat­ed who dis­ap­peared into her­self so afraid of the judge­ment on her body by those around her.

Body image plays a huge part in Jus­tine and Ginger’s com­ing of age. The cam­pus doctor’s sto­ry cements the idea that girls are sup­posed to look a cer­tain way. Eat­ing is viewed in a mas­sive­ly neg­a­tive light and is some­thing to do in the shad­ows. Jus­tine stuffs raw chick­en in her mouth as secret mid­night snacks and goes on clan­des­tine kebab runs with her room­mate. After Gin­ger is mauled by a were­wolf she starts to devour dogs and spends her time over the toi­let bowl vom­it­ing her guts up.

By the end of the film Gin­ger explains how good it feels to let go of accept­able behav­iour and gob­ble up sinewy mus­cle, while in Raw Jus­tine learns to embrace her ani­mal­is­tic urges. Both girls angri­ly attempt to take con­trol back after they are taught to be ashamed and keep qui­et about their pain.