DVD Review: Cursed - Unrated Version
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::Movie review
About a decade ago, Kevin Williamson reinvented the horror movie genre with his horror whodunit masterpiece, Scream. Rather than trying to bypass convention, Scream embraced it, allowing the characters to know what was happening to them. Unexpectedly, the film managed to bridge the gap between suspense and comedy, while still maintaining a decent scare-factor.
The inevitable sequels weren't nearly as inventive and quickly became bogged down by their own cleverness. Audiences were savvy in the hunt to solve the mysteries, and so the plots became more and more of a stretch.
Some time has passed now and Williamson has decided to dip once again into the horror well, this time adding a supernatural spice to the potion. And the concoction is his least successful effort yet.
The movie is Cursed (pun not entirely unintended) and the subject is werewolves.
It seems to be an unwritten rule in monster movies that they must all reinvent the lore surrounding their monsters. I once thought this was a matter of conceit on the part of the filmmakers, thinking that they could do the monsters better than anyone else before them. Now I think it's just a matter of practicality. Forcing the characters to learn the lore gives them something to do while waiting to be eaten.
As with the Scream films, the identity of the slasher (in this case, the werewolf) is kept a secret. Because of this, many characters in the film exist for no other reason than to be suspects. Their screen time is carefully planned out so that they could be out eating people when the camera isn't watching.
Also sticking to the Scream formula is the introduction of a character played by a high profile actor, only to kill her off within the first 10 minutes. Scream gave us Drew Barrymore. Cursed has Shannon Elizabeth. Now, I mean no disrespect to Shannon, but she ain't no Drew.
The basic story is that a brother and sister, Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenburg), become victims of a werewolf attack. At first they are skeptical of what is happening to them, but eventually realize that the curse is real and the only way to rid themselves of it is to find the original werewolf who infected them and kill it. Every other character that appears in the film exists for no other purpose than to potentially be the werewolf.
It's worth noting that the film as it exists now is not the film that was originally intended. The script suffered through major rewrites, many of which came after significant filming had taken place. In fact, the current cast of the film is drastically different, with many scenes having been dumped or re-filmed to accommodate the new actors.
I would be interested in learning Kevin Williamson's involvements in the rewrites. For instance, his original version made Ellie and Jimmy strangers rather than brother and sister. This is significant because the brother-sister interaction between these two characters is one of the film's weakest points. Their relationship not only rings false, but lacks the spark of typical Williamson dialog. Also, other elements of the current story seem a bit disjointed and hastily pasted together. If these changes were made without Williamson's influence, then perhaps some of the blame for Cursed can be lifted from his shoulders.
I need to mention the werewolf, because this is, after all, a werewolf movie. I had pretty much convinced myself that no movie werewolf could ever be worse than the lion/bear/thing from An American Werewolf in London. I was wrong. I know that this is the digital age and there is a tendency to forego practical (that is, on set) effects in favor of computer generated imagery. But even so, there have been some really good non-CGI effects in recent years. The effects in Cursed will not go on that list. Most shots of the monster look exactly like a man in a bad costume. The rest of the shots look like second-rate CGI. So for all of its other problems, Cursed doesn't even have good effects going for it.
Because I enjoy the guilty pleasure of a monster movie, I really wanted to like Cursed. Unfortunately, the film is just too ridiculous and poorly constructed to make that possible. There may be a better movie buried somewhere deep within Cursed, but it must be waiting for a full moon to come out.
::Video
The video presentation on Cursed is probably the best thing this disc has going for it. Being a werewolf movie, much of the film takes place at night and the picture does a good job of conveying rich, deep shadows and vibrant colors, while retaining plenty of detail. I noticed no digital problems and very little edge enhancement.
::Audio
I found the audio to be something of a mixed bag here. The musical score and surround effects are presented well, but the dialog, at times, sounded like it was being delivered through a tin can in a public restroom.
::Special Features
First of all, a warning about the special features on this disc: No one does a very good job at preserving the secret of who the werewolf is, so unless you want the surprise spoiled, it's best to save them for after you've viewed the film.
Most of the content takes the form of four featurettes, each running from about five and a half to seven and a half minutes. Of these featurettes, only three are moderately decent.
Behind the Fangs: The Making of Cursed is the longest at seven and a half minutes. In addition to the cheesy Electronic Press Kit title, it also has a rather EPK feeling about it, too. This is strange, because the revelation of secrets of the plot seems to imply that this was made specifically for the DVD. Nothing here is really insightful about the film. Furthermore, and this is true of all of the extras on this disc, only glossed over mention is given to the massive rewrites this film underwent. No one talks about the significant cast and story changes.
Next up are The Cursed Effects and Creature Editing 101, both about 6 minutes in length and both examine, as you might have guessed, the effects work in the film.
The final "featurette" is actually a short film written and directed by Jesse Eisenburg called Becoming a Werewolf. After seeing this, I'm convinced that Eisenburg should stick to acting.
Finally, the disc offers up four selected special effects scenes with commentary by special effects supervisor Greg Nicotero an actor Derek Mears (the guy in the werewolf suit). Apparently no one had the courage to tackle the film's problems in a full length commentary. I do, however, have to give credit to these two for being fairly candid with their opinions. Despite being a bit blinded with motherly love over their work on the monster suit, they pull no punches in frankly describing the other effects that think aren't working.
::Bottom Line
It's possible that there once was a pretty good werewolf film in Cursed. In fact, Wes Craven's original take on it was for a much darker film. It's too bad that everyone chickened out and decided to take the safe route, instead, opting for a PG-13 film that would be more appealing to a younger audience. Even this unrated edition can't save it. And because I can't resist the bad pun, the biggest problem is just that Cursed doesn't have any bite.
| Movie |  |
2 / 5 |
| Video | |
4 / 5 |
| Audio | |
2.5 / 5 |
| Extras | |
2.5 / 5 |
| Family Friendly | 0 / 5 | |
| I can't comment about how appropriate the PG-13 version of this film is, since I've never seen it. But this unrated edition should not be viewed by children. | ||
| Overall | |
2.5 / 5 |
- Robert Wurth, ©2005
::Technical Specs
Studio:
Dimension Home Video
Year of Theatrical Release:
2005
Disc Format:
1 single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Region Encoding:
1 (North America)
Sound Format:
Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time:
97 minutes
Director:
Wex Craven
Stars:
Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenburg, Joshua Jackson, Judy Greer, Michael Rosenbaum
MPAA Rating:
Unrated (R)
Disc Supplements:
- Selected scene commentary with special effects supervisor Greg Nicotero and actor Derek Mears
- Becoming a Werewolf featurette
- Creature Editing 101 featurette
- The Cursed Effects featurette
- Behind the Fangs: The Making of Cursed
