Cursed

Director - Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm St. Scream)

Starring - Christina Ricci (The Addams Family, Casper), Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland, Camp Hell), and Joshua Jackson (Urban Legend, The Mighty Ducks)

Release Date - 2005

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Wes Craven is a legend among movie goers.  Regardless if you are a horror fan or not you can still respect the man's career.  I'm a huge fan of Craven's from his work in the early 70s with films like Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes all the way until 95 with Vampire in Brooklyn.  However, his films after just didn't work for me.  I still respect the hell out of him and the movies he gave us but his newer films were a tad bit disappointing.  During my senior year in high school Craven once again sat in the directing chair for his werewolf film starring Christina Ricci.  Cursed was a movie that several genre fans were excited about but after being disappointed in his Scream series and Red Eye I decided to skip it.  I added the DVD to my collection many years ago but I never had the wild hair up my ass to finally check it out.  A few weeks ago Scream Factory announced the release of the film on blu.  I was on the fence about checking it out but a friend of mine told me to be open minded about it.  I took his advice and reached out to Scream Factory where they sent over a review copy.  I decided to add it to my Scream Factory marathon and finally check it out.  

     The film follows Ellie (Ricci) who is a business woman trying to take care of her teenage brother (Eisenberg) after the death of their parents.  One night the pair is in their car when an animal runs out in front of them causing an accident with another car and begins a living nightmare for the two.  They discover they have been cursed by the lycanthrope.  They rush to reverse the curse and quickly realized that the one responsible for transforming them into this creature is someone they know and love.

     Cursed started out promising.  It not only references the original Wolfman but has several homages to the classic film while giving Ricci plenty of screen time.  However, The unlikable characters, the Disney channel type drama, and predictable story makes it difficult for me to like.  The acting on this one has me torn.  Ricci, and to some extent, Eisenberg deliver outstanding performances.  Ricci does a fantastic job in her role and her character is one of the few that you actually like.  The remainder of the film mostly consists of bratty and petty characters that are so unlikable that you want to them to die.  I don't know if that is how they were written or the cast struggled to find their own identity when bringing their characters to life but I struggled to find characters that I was actually rooting for.  The story for this one takes it's time to pay tribute to one of the greatest werewolf films of history.  It establishes the lore around the werewolf in the film very early on and does a phenomenal job at creating a backstory for a lot of the characters that are important to he actual film.  However, the predictability of who the werewolf is and who is doing the killing takes away from the impact of the big reveal.  The twist could have been written a little better and actually pulled off.  Finally, this film is filled with some horrible visual effects that I struggle to believe actually looked good in 2005.  Sometimes I can find humor in bad CGI but this time I was spending more time rolling my eyes than actually watching the film.  We get some fun practical effects but they are overshadowed by the cheap visuals.  Overall, Cursed has it's heart in the right place but the writing is the film's biggest weakness.  You have unlikable characters and a predictable story that results in a forgettable film.  Honestly, I feel bad for Christina Ricci in this one.  Fans of Craven or collectors may want to upgrade their existing copy of the film but if you want something new to watch I would recommend skipping over this one.