Leofwine_draca And there I was expecting a single modicum of wit, intelligence and originality. It turns out that CURSED is werewolf-lite, a simple retelling of the lycanthropy legend for the modern teenage audience that adds even less to the genre than the rather flaccid Jack Nicholson-starrer, WOLF (at least that had a good lead). For shame, Wes Craven, a director who seems to have the power to make some of the best and worst films of the horror genre at the same time. Few can argue that the likes of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and SCREAM are true genre classics, but the rest of his output divides me. I admire films such as RED EYE and LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, but other fare – like the SCREAM sequels and VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN – are just total rubbish, like this movie.If I had to lay the blame at anybody's door, though, I'd opt for Kevin Williamson, the talent-free scriptwriter who's got only one decent film to his name (SCREAM). Everything since then has been flawed, unoriginal and a simple reworking of the same themes. CURSED has the same flaws, with a lightness of touch that sits ill at ease with the theatrical werewolf stuff, dumb characters and an emphasis on clichéd teen themes over genuine thrills and scares.Things begin on a fairly good note, with a well-shot car accident that results in Shannon Elizabeth (American PIE) being munched upon by an unknown beast. Even before this happens, though, we've been introduced to lots of uninteresting and unimportant supporting characters and more of the self-referencing that Williamson loves (here, we see statues and props from The Wolf Man as well as actor Scott Baio and others playing themselves). The film then runs the gamut of themes that were clichés back when TEEN WOLF ran them out in the 1980s: the nerdy guy is bitten by the werewolf and becomes suddenly super strong and a hit with the gormless girls; the dowdy girl bitten by the werewolf is suddenly an object of desire, even infatuation, for her male colleagues while developing a liking for blood.The annoying thing is that the two central characters never even complete a full transformation, not really. Not that that's a bad thing –the state of the CGI effects (despite the presence of top FX man Rick Baker on set) renders these werewolves as dumb-looking idiocies, no better than the beasts in AN American WEREWOLF IN Paris. Despite the short running time, nothing much happens until the overdone, melodramatic climax which plays out all the clichés once more. I'm really sick and tired of these scenes of victims fighting off deadly attackers and recovering from being thrown through walls etc. Why not actually go ahead and KILL off some of those folks in the overpopulated cast list for a change instead of playing safe all the time? The cast is lacklustre, with Christina Ricci still searching for the right role ever since THE ADDAMS FAMILY and Joshua Jackson virtually playing the same guy he did in DAWSON'S CREEK. Only Jesse Eisenberg and Milo Ventimiglia come out of this with dignity intact. Then again, there's not much dignity to be had in running away from silly animated werewolves in a film that constantly reminds us of the toothless state of modern horror. No wonder HOSTEL garnered so much attention when it was released the same year.

utgard14 A somewhat underrated and much-maligned movie that, yes, had a very troubled (cursed?) production. But I think if you enjoy other movies written by Kevin Williamson, like The Faculty and I Know What You Did Last Summer, you'll probably like this more than others who were expecting something different. If you're a Wes Craven fan hoping for a scary movie, then yeah you'll probably hate this. As a horror movie, it's not impressive. I was never scared for one second. The CGI effects for the werewolves are not the greatest. But as one of those non-scary movies with a horror backdrop where the young pretty people all say snappy lines and make pop culture references, it's entertaining enough. I guess it comes down to expectations. I don't think it's close to the best either Craven or Williamson has done but it's not the total stinker people make it out to be. One review I read referred to it as "disappointingly routine" and I think that's a fair criticism for it. There's nothing really new here but, in my view, that doesn't stop the movie from being enjoyable in its way. I have seen it a few times since its initial release (where I was in a theater opening weekend to see it) and each time I've found it entertaining. Try and put preconceived notions aside and give it a fair shot. It won't likely become one of your favorite werewolf movies but there's a good chance you'll walk away thinking this is better than its reputation suggests.

loomis78-815-989034 Bullied teenager Jimmy (Eisenberg) and his Hollywood executive older sister Ellie (Ricci), are attacked by a werewolf one night when driving home on a curiously empty Mulholland Drive. They both start showing signs of becoming a werewolf themselves and Jimmy can't get anyone to believe him. In a nauseating twist we find out that Ellie's too-busy-for-her boyfriend Jake (Jackson) is indeed the werewolf. This long delayed and Studio tampered with werewolf film from the "Scream" and "Scream 2" duo of Writer Kevin Williamson and Director Wes Craven is an absolute atrocity. It's hard to believe this much talent was involved in this lousy CGI werewolf film that couldn't scare a 13 year old by accident. Williamson's script is full of terrible clichéd characters and unbelievable plot twists that get stupider as it goes. Most attempts at humor fall flat and even horror master Wes Craven's direction seems to be going through the motions. Lead Christina Ricci acts most of the film like she is embarrassed being in it and who can blame her? In all fairness to the film makers, the Studio (Dimension) cut and chopped the movie up to make sure it got a PG-13 rating for the kiddies and both Williamson and Craven are on record saying they were disappointed with what the executives did. With that said, it's still hard to imagine this mess being anything good or even watchable for anyone. Everyone should skip this.

felixoteiza What a delightful little turkey. The typical flick that is so bad, it ends up being good; and one quite entertaining at that. For starters we got Christina Ricci, quite a treat to look at. The blessed girl can't be anything else but cute--she may be a great actress but who cares? --she only needs to stand in front of a camera to make for good fun. Also at her best when on the prowl in that cubicle-filled TV station, moving along in that feline demeanor of hers, sniffing anyone crossing her path, moving her undulating derrière in a lustful, quite inviting, fashion. Yum, yum. And then we have Shannon Elizabeth, the Barbara Steele of Teenage Camp, who we last see, or just her upper part, crawling on the ground, trying to get somewhere but going nowhere but to a hilari...I mean, horrifying death. Campy, campy.The plot is simple. A werewolf roams the wild near Hollywood and one night it attacks those folks involved in a 2--car accident in Mulholland Dr. killing and mutilating the driver of one--Elizabeth--and biting the occupants of the other, Lillian (Ricci) and her nerd brother Jimmy (Eisenberg). Fearing they may turn also in werewolves themselves, these last set then to find the culprit, so they may put an end to the curse that, they think, has so befallen them.The merit of Cursed is that everything in it is uniformly bad, at least mediocre or standard, and that it's also unpretentious. No artsy cinematography trying to cover for the lack of a decent plot, for bad acting or bad writing. No pretense in any of those fields, or others, so you may rest assured knowing that what you get at the beginning is the same you'll get up to the end. The camera work is no great shakes, which allows us to better focus on the bad dialogs, the cheesy SF, the lousy or non-existing characterizations, and having fun watching it all unfold into a cliché ending--note how Bow, Brooke, Zipper appear on cue for the appropriate Hollywood finale. While Ricci & Eisenberg do decent acting jobs, Jackson seems lost here; he has the same perplexed "I just woke up" expression all along, which makes him look like thinking: "I can't believe I'm in this flick, saying these things". Greer may be a good actress--that I can't say--but not for a moment she seems to believe in her character, which makes her greatly overact her scenes. As for Ventimiglia, just two words: bully & gay. Can you imagine that? If you can't, and if you are a GGs fan, just picture Jess rejecting Rory and going instead for Kirk. No wonder he seems to be here only waiting for the director to give him that lift back home and killing the time having some mischievous fun, playing a few Jess-like pranks on others, getting in the way of real actors and characters.But perhaps this is not, after all, a bad serious movie but a good spoof at the genre. What opens that possibility is that we are offered at times some likely caveats warning us that we shouldn't just take it too seriously. The best ex, and the funniest, is the episode of the finger saluting werewolf. See, Lillian & Jimmy have just survived a raging rampage of it, in some horror theme dancing club, and barely escaped an awful death when the beast has let them go at hearing the approaching police sirens. Moments later the arriving cops, unfazed at the news that the beast is actually a werewolf and that it may have yet changed its appearance to that of a particular woman--Lillian's love rival by coincidence--ask for a description. Lillian volunteers; "It's some kind of hyper PR woman, with bony ass, fat tights and baaad skin" At that very moment she--werewolf appears again in the balcony she had disappeared into, still in beastly attire, and indignantly screams at her: "Liar!" only to be riddled with bullets. Well, if you insist in taking the movie seriously after that you better stop asking Mensa for that membership application form they haven't sent you in a year.So, as there could be a fairly decent horror comedy lurking there under the guise of a poorly produced, shot, written and acted flick, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and I'll say 6.0/10, most of all because it entertained me a lot. If you consider this high...come on, I gave 7.0 to Casablanca and it didn't nearly entertain me that much.