Cursed Review

Written by: Steve Lewis   

This movie is really "cursed."  I really feel sorry for Wes Craven and I can understand why he became dissappointed with the results of this film.  It's not his vision and it's outcome will traumatize him and his fans.

The problem with the film is that's too hip or a better choice of words would be too mainstream.  You can tell this right from the beginning credits.  The film had an American Werewolf in Paris feel but atleast that movie was pretty damn funny.  The young faced untalented actors of Shannon Elizabeth, Jesse Eisenberg, and Joshua Jackson made the film head downward, face first into a pit of spikes.  Joshua Jackson's character actually had a chance.  I'm not going to lie to you.  Jackson could have done his role 10 times as better but his just contributed the unjustice to this role like he did in Urban Legends.  I thought Cristina Ricci did a fine job but maybe I'm a little bias because I kinda like Ricci (as an actress) from her previous work in Addams Family and Sleepy Hollow.

My feelings for Dimension films are lowering with every current film they release.  It didn't always use to be this way.  They actually had a few great movies back in the day.  A few come to mind are Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn and The Faculty.  Even Phantoms had great potential with the ever hated Ben Affleck.  If I was Craven, I would have just separated myself from this film as far as possible.  It's no where near his style of work.  If you took Shocker, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or even Last House of the Left and compare it to Cursed, you would have tought two different directors made the movies.

The CGI was horrendous.  Some scenes were, dare I say, "ok" but some of CGI takes made me feel I was watching an animated cartoon.  One scene that stood out is a transformation scene from human to werewolf.  I felt cheated.  While watching this scene, I was comparing it to American Werewolf in Paris.  Though AWP had bad CGI, Cursed has now overthrown the top spot in worst CGI.  Some of the CGI death scenes were really done well.  With the woman who was cut in half (awesome) or the decapitating scene (awesomex2) were the only two highlights. 

The storyline is different, it's smart, and it lacks actors.  I enjoyed the story with the whole getting bitten, slowing changing, calling it a curse..yatta yatta.  It became a little stereotypical during the middle.  The enhanced smell scene we see most werewolf films today.  One seen reminded me of Teen Wolf, you know that film with Michael J. Fox.  Where the nerd Jimmy, Ricci's little brother in the film, wrestles the jock and just destroys him.  I think the dialogue really lacked.  Lines like "I guess you can trush having safe sex with a werewolf" really confirmed to me that this movie was worth the $5 I paid for it at the pawn shop (bravo to the guy who brought it in).

Overall, it gets a score of 3 out of 10.  I suggest renting it if you feel like having a fun time with a cheesy mainstream horror film. Poor Craven.  If you ever see him on the street, stop him, and tell him how sorry you are for how Dimension really ruined his film.