The Fitzgerald Residence

The Fitzgerald House
Type	Residential Building
Purpose	Suburban housing unit
Status	Abandoned (presumed)
Date of Abandonment	1999 (presumed)
Location	Bailey Downs, Ontario, Canada
Inhabitants	The Fitzgerald family
Film Appearances	Ginger Snaps

This is the home of the Fitzgerald family: Brigitte Fitzgerald, Ginger Fitzgerald, Henry Fitzgerald, and Pamela Fitzgerald. It is where the sisters begin their operations and find solace and privacy, and the basement is the scene where Gingerwolf kills Sam.

The residence sits with adjacent houses at the rounded end of a cul-de-sac.

Overview

Design

The Fitzgerald house is shown as a two-story detached house clad with beige and light-brown bricks with an attached garage and basement. A suburban tract house, the building is at least 30 feet (10 m) wide. From the street, a driveway leads to a wide twin garage which is the frontmost feature of the building. To the left, tucked between the garage and a large bay window, the front door leads to a corridor which connects to the garage and leads to the living room that lies behind the bay window. Next to the living room and to the right after exiting that corridor is a dining area that spans the space to the kitchen at the far end of the house. To the left of the kitchen is a door that leads to a staircase that goes down to the basement. And to the right is a small breakfast area with a table, an adjacent pantry door and a passage to a back door that leads outside to the backyard.

View of the garage and the entryway. Note the house humber "38" to the left of the garage. The front door is on the left, obscured by a tree.

Another view of the entryway. Note again the "38" and the bay window on the left.

The real-life house used for exterior shots as it looked in 2018. Note the changed location of the "38", the bay window and the modified front door. The wooden fence on the right is still unchanged.

The basement is outfitted with unfinished drywalls and features a rec room at the lower end of the staircase, a utility room with a deep freezer and a washing machine, and the shared bedroom of the Fitzgerald sisters which has its own full bathroom.

On the top floor is the bedroom of Pamela and Henry Fitzgerald.

The backyard is surrounded by a tall wooden fence which at some parts has a lower white picket fence in front of it that separares flowers and shrubbery from the lawn. At one of its back corners is the tool shed or playhouse. At the backside of the residence is also a terrace.

History

It is unknown for how long the Fitzgeralds have been living there. According to the semi-official Diary of Brigitte (Diary 1), Ginger still remembered their father building the toolshed in the backyard from when they were little.

The destroyed kitchen.

Over the timeframe of the movie, no significant changes take place until the end. On October 24, Trina Sinclair entered the backyard where she was caught by Ginger and dragged inside, where she had a deadly accident. The body was burried under the toolshed in the same night. On Halloween, Pamela discovered the body. Later in the evening, Sam and Brigitte return from the party with a transforming Ginger locked in the van. After arriving, she broke free after having completely turned into a werewolf. She escaped into the house where she trashed most of the furniture. Sam is killed in the basement by Ginger, who later meets her end in her bedroom. At that time the parents were not at home and Pamela was already prepared to abandon and blow up the house on the following day. The further fate of the residence after the movie is unknown.

The house in the movie

Ground floor

Floor plan for the ground floor set

The front door leads to a short corridor that ends in the living room. Seen from the living room, this corridor has two doors on its left wall and a window on its other end, here the corridor makes a sharp turn to the right and another door can be seen that sits to the right of the window. This corridor is seen two times in the movie. The first time when Ginger and Brigitte return home after the werewolf attack and for the last time when Brigitte and Sam go towards the living room from the garage. When the parents return from the supermarket, they also seem to emerge from this corridor, implying a connection to the garage. In this corridor, a large painting of Ginger and Brigitte was hanging on the wall with the two doors, but it was only featured in the scene with Sam and Brigitte.

Ginger and Brigitte in the entrance corridor after returning from the werewolf attack

Brigitte and Sam in the corridor after the Gingerwolf escaped the van

The painting on the corridor wall

The living room is the foremost section of a straight sequence of rooms that goes all the way from the front of the house to its aft wall and ends at the kitchen. Between the living room and kitchen is a dining area. These different rooms are not separated by walls or doors. The living room has a large bay window with drapes. A couch with a coffee table sits in front it with another couch at the wall to the right. There is also an armchair. This room can mostly be seen during the dinners behind Henry's position.

View of the living room behind the dining table

Brigitte and Pam on the couch in front of the bay window. Ginger sits on another couch to the right.

This shot of the living room shows the second couch on the wall and the armchair

The dining area lies between the kitchen and the living room. It contains the dining table in the center surrounded by four identical matching chairs. Two additional identical chairs stand on either of the side walls next to side table at the left wall, which can be seen behind Brigitte during dinner scenes and a cupboard on the right wall, seen behind Ginger during dinners. There are also two decorative white columns topped with potted plants.

Side table with decorations on the left wall.

Dining area during dinner. Note the side table behind Brigitte and the cupboard behind Ginger.

The cupboard on the right wall.

Kitchen

The kitchen features a u-shaped counter with an island at the open side of the "u". This side also faces the dining area. The island houses the stove and typically has cooking pans hanging above it. When viewed from this end, the kitchen has a wall on the left on which the fridge is situated with suspended cabinets above and to the right. Following to the right along the corner we reach the aft wall with a window that faces the backyard and a kitchen sink in the countertop in front of it. Further to the right, the wall continues but the countertop angles back towards the dining area, separating the workspace in the kitchen from a breakfast area to the right of it with a back door that leads to the backyard. When Ginger was dragging Trina into the house, they were entering the house through this door, walk around the countertop and enter the kitchen-"u" on the right side of the island on which the bowl that fell to the ground was standing. In the breakfast area two dialogue scenes with Pamela and Brigitte take place. This is also where Brigitte notices the dried monkshood. The kitchen has a pantry with a door at a 45 degree angle. When exiting the pantry, one faces the passage to the right of the island.

Kitchen seen from the dining area. Note the island in the center and the fridge on the left. Not visible: the breakfast area to the right.

Kitchen seen from the breakfast area. Note the half-obscured fridge behind Brigitte and the open door to the basement.

Floor between the kitchen and dining room. Note the angled door to the pantry (left) and the door the basement (right)

Rare shot that shows a direct connection between the interior and exterior of the house. The back door that leads from the terrace to the breakfast area in the kitchen

The inside of the pantry. Note the angled door.

The open pantry door across from the kitchen counter in front of the breakfast area.

Basement

The floorplan for the basement set.

At some dinner scenes, it's prominently shown that the sisters go through a door on the left of the kitchen to get to their room in the basement. Behind this door is a staircase. After going down the staircase, you find yourself in a rec room furnished with a sofa, a rocking chair and two armchairs. There is also a tv and an exercise bike. This is the room where Brigitte watches the werewolf movie. Most of the walls are unfinished drywalls with open wooden frames. When turning right after coming down the stairs you enter a long passageway. Through its right wall you can access a utility room with a washing machine and the deep freezer. There is also a ping-pong table with dried flowers. At the very end of the corridor are shelves with bottled food. This is also the corridor where Brigitte encounters the Gingerwolf and where Sam is killed.

When you turn left after going down the stairs, you'll reach the shared bedroom of Ginger and Brigitte.

The staircase leading down to the basement from the kitchen. Note how the window implies that the dining room wall is not an outer wall of the house.

The basement staircase seen from the rec room. Note that the right part is covered with a drywall, the space behind it is later revealed to be connected to the bedroom.

The door to the sisters' bedroom from the outside. This area lies to the right from the staircase in the previous image

The rec room in the basement sits opposite from the staircase

Pamela doing laundry in the basement. Note the ping-pong table with dried plants.

The freezer is in the same room as the washing machines.

The utility room (named "mechanical & laundry" in production drawings) with the freezer and washing machines also contains the house's furnace and is connected to a crawlspace below the basement staircase. When Brigitte flees from the Gingerwolf, she enters the utility room, hides behind the heater and crawls through an opening in the wall into the space below the staircase.

Brigitte looks at the bedroom door. Far behind her at the end of the basement corridor we see canned food.

Brigitte faces the Gingerwolf in the corridor. Again, we can see the bottled food.

Brigitte hides below the staircase. She can see the ping-pong table in the utility room through the unfinished wall.

Fitzgerald sisters' bedroom

The sisters' shared bedroom features two metal frame beds with a small nightstand in between. At their foot end, beaded curtains hang from the ceiling. Similar curtains can be found on various places in the room. The wardrobe inside the wall is covered with another beaded curtain. The walls are decorated with photographs. Lighting is provided by two neon tubes above the beds' headboards and an assortment of various random lamps and candles. On Ginger's side of the room we find a desk at the wall and a small side table with an old tv with knobs. Brigitte's side has a dresser at the wall with an antique brass cosmetic mirror on top. The room has two basement windows close to the ceiling. The walls behind the beds and on the left side are unpainted. Most of the other walls as well as the entrance door are painted in purple. Next to the door stands a floorlamp and a dresser with a lighbox above on the wall. Further to the right close to the corner is another door. This door opens to a usually otherwise inaccesible space below the staircase which most likely serves as a closet. Brigitte enters the bedroom through this door when fleeing from the Gingerwolf.

The two metal beds with the nightstand inbetween.

Ginger's side of the room, with a desk on the wall and an old-style tv with knobs. Note the passage to the bathroom on the right

Brigitte's side of the room. The windows indicate that this room is situated at a corner of the house.

The dresser with the lightbox above. Note the second door on the right, which leads to a space below the staircase.

The entrance to the bedroom. On the far end of the basement we see a shelf with bootled food at the end of the corridor to the laundry and freezer room.

At the right side of the room is a passage that leads to a fully equipped bathroom covered with green tiles. At the far end of this passage is a drawer cabinet where Brigitte hides and later retrieves the kitchen knife. The bathroom has bath tub on the right side and on the left, close to the door, a vanity with a sink and two mirrors. To the right of the vanity is the toilet.

One of Ginger's suicide photos offers a good view of the bathroom

The vanity with two narrow mirrors above can be seen in this deleted scene

View of the area directly outside the bathroom door. Note the grey wall where the passage narrows.

Top floor

One of the few scenes that were shot inside the actual house shows the parents' bedroom.

The only room on this floor that is featured in the movie is the parents' bedroom. It has red walls and a large window behind the bed's headboard that faces the backyard.

Backyard

At the back of the house is a wooden terrace with a door that leads inside. On its side, stairs lead up from the lawn. This terrace can be seen on one of the photos where Ginger has been killed by a lawnmover. When Ginger drags Trina inside they can be seen moving up the stairs.

The terrace in the background of Ginger's staged lawnmower death scene. Note the potted plants on the stairs and the wooden planters

View from the kitchen. Note the stairs and the planters

Pam works on the potted plants. Note the wood cover on the left which belong to the wooden planters on the terrace and the birdhouse in the tree

View past the planter and the ceramic pot to the playhouse. Another part of the terrace with wood railing is visible.

View from the parent's bedroom. Note the birdhouses in the tree and the wooden railing of the far side of the terrace.

The "tea party" photo. Note the white picket fence that is missing in later shots of this area.

The entire backyard is covered with a well-kept lawn and surrounded by a tall wooden fence with shrubs in front of it at some places. On the left aft corner of the property sits the tool shed/playhouse. Two wooden outdoor lounge chairs were standing to the right of it in front of the fence. There is also small tree with three birdhouses stacked on top of each other hanging from a branch. The white picket fence is in front of the tall fence on the left border of the property. In the very next appearance of this area, the picket fence was gone.

Garage

The garage is the frontmost feature of the house and is typically used to park the Fitzgerald family van. Theoretically it is wide enough for two cars but is mostly filled with storage boxes and appliances such as a fridge, a grill and the lawnmover. At the right end of the back wall is a door that leads into the house. The garage is one of the few interior parts of the house that was not represented by a studio set but the actual garage of the real house used for exterior shots. It is heavily featured in the sisters' slide show and is the first part of the house that is seen in the movie, when Brigitte takes props for their photoshoots out of it. The garage is later seen again when the girls return from school and also regularly when a car enters it. At the end of the movie it is the place where the recently transformed Gingerwolf breaks out of the van.

The garage has barely enough space for one car anymore.

Sam backing up into the garage. Note how the door inside is at the right edge of the garage.

View into the actual house from the real garage. The wall with the window must be at the right edge of the building.

Continuity

In all scenes the bathroom door typically swings inward, except when Ginger gets trapped inside by Brigitte on Halloween. Brigitte blocks the door with a wooden beam from the outside, which would only work when the door swings outward. The door hinges had to be moved for this scene .

The bathroom door's first appearance shows it flush with the door frame. Seconds later, Ginger opens the door to the inside.

When Pamela walks in on Ginger in the bathroom, the door opens to the inside.

Ginger is locked in the bathroom on Halloween. Note that the door is no longer flush with the frame and the purple portion of the frame, typically on the ouside, is now visible. The old drillholes for the door hinges are also visible.

In previous script versions, Brigitte used an extension cord to keep the door shut, which made more sense when the door still opened inward. But at some point it was probably deemed more practical or visually effective to block it with a wooden beam instead and the door was modified accordingly.

Production

Shooting location

The exterior of the fictional residence was portrayed by a real private home located in Brampton, Ontario. All exterior scenes that take place on the Fitzgerald property were shot there, including the photo series for the opening sequence/slideshow of the sisters. The surrounding neighborhood was also filmed for some scenes. Almost all scenes that take place in the interior were shot at a set in a film studio. Exceptions include the scene in the parents' bedroom, where the camera takes a look outside the window into the backyard, and scenes in the garage, which were filmed at the house.

The scenes in the trashed interior following Ginger's escape from the van into the house were among the very last ones filmed for the movie. Logically, since it required the destruction of most of the furniture and blood getting spread all over.

Pre-production

Production designer Todd Cherniawsky created a first draft for the house's floorplan dated August 11, 1999. Here the garage and living area of house are flipped when compared to the later house, but it already has the characteristic living-dining-kitchen sequence. The basement staircase is already at the left side of the kitchen but still lies inside the house due to the flipped arrangement. A later design sketch for the exterior, dated August 29, is closer to the shooting location. According to director John Fawcett, considerable time and effort went into working out the layout of the basement set, as it was closely related to how the scenes and especially the action sequences at the end of the movie would play out.

The first floor plans for the house. Note how, when compared to the actual shooting location, the layout is flipped and the staircase lies in the center. The parents' bedroom is on the ground floor and the basement still considerably different.

This sketch of the house's exterior is already pretty close to the later shooting location.

This sketch of the laundry and freezer room is almost identical to the finished set. In the rear left corner is the furnace behind which Brigitte hides from the Gingerwolf before she crawls to the space under the staircase.

External links

• Youtube video: Exploration of the exterior of the house and the neighbourhood park
• Youtube video: Behind the scenes "Being John Fawcett" (The cast is shown on the basement set which is yet under construction, with walls missing)