Monday, February 9, 2009

Cursed (2005)


Cast: Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson, Judy Greer

Synopsis: A string of bizarre animal attacks ravages Los Angelese with bodies showing up torn in two and ripped to shreds (Don't get too excited though, the film was PG-13 most of the way through). Christina Ricci and her dorky brother, Eisenberg are two siblings who manage to escape the clutches of the animal with only a few scratches but as it turns out (surprise!) that only leaves them CURSED. Soon they're discovering that they're slowly turning into vicious snarling beasts - hilarity ensues! I mean... horror ensues. This isn't Teen Wolf...

Review: I am so very glad that I didn't know this was directed by Wes Craven till after it was over because I feel it may have inadvertantly altered my view of the film in a negative way - not that I have anything against Craven but it might have set my expectations a little higher. As it was though this was a reasonable enough film, entertaining with an easy to follow yet not too boring plot - much like any other werewolf movie ever made. It was PG-13 though, which I fully understand since the whole film seemed much more geared towards a teen audience but I would far rather have seen a lot more gore in a movie with such seemingly savage beasts (A note - in the DVD extras the Film Editor claims that the DVD version I watched is actually rated R and it was only PG-13 in theaters but it's still extremely tame and personally I wouldn't have rated it above PG-13 if I were in the MPAA which I'm not so I'll shut up now). As far as the creature effects go they aren't too bad and even though it's blatantly obvious that the werewolf is nothing but a mechanical costume that is one billion times better than when you watch a film and it's obvious that it's CGI effects - I'd far rather laugh at a silly costume than lame computer effects - and the gore that there is in the film is pretty well done, so hats off there.

"You made me taste my own corn syrup..."

In short, the film was reasonable for what it is but is a far cry from being any sort of definitive or even terribly memorable werewolf movie.

Also it's a bad sign when the special features on the DVD are more entertaining than the film itself... just saying!


In Short:
Biggest Positive: They managed to not do a cheesy "Time of the month" joke!

Biggest Negative: PG-13! Fuck that shit.

- (That's harsh! I want to give this film 3 smiley's but I can't bring myself to do it...)


Cursed's imdb page

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