Cursed
is a fitting title for this werewolf thriller from veteran horror director Wes
Craven and Scream scribe Kevin Williamson. For starters, the movie has been cursed
with the (PG-13), meaning that Rick Baker (the brilliant maestro of make-up effects)
is never really given the opportunity to show us what’s in his gruesome bag
of tricks. And since the film, as a whole, is pretty mediocre, the effects were
the only thing that might have saved it.
In
this routine monster movie, Christina Ricci plays Ellie, an ambitious young woman
who works as an assistant at The Craig Kilborn Show. (talk about “Cursed”).
Jesse Eisenberg plays Jimmy, her younger brother, a nerdy teenager who’s
at the lower end of the social food chain in high school. Late one night while
driving home through the twists and turns of Mulholland Drive, a strange creature
bolts in front of their car, sending them barreling head-on into a car coming
from the other direction. During an attempt to pull a scared woman (Shannon Elizabeth)
from the wreckage of her mangled vehicle, Ellie and Jimmy are attacked by the
very creature that caused the accident. As days pass, these siblings discover
new found energy, a passion for meat, and a violent allergic reaction to silver.
What
happened to Wes Craven? This is a film maker responsible for truly iconic works
of horror (see Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes, or Last House on
the Left), but here, he appears completely uninterested in the material. I can’t
say that I blame him for that, Kevin Williamson’s screenplay is pretty lacklustre,
and is all-too-self conscious in his attempt at fusing horror with pop culture
references (Scott Baio even appears in the film – how many “kitsch”
points do you give for that?). This picture even has the balls to make references
to the original Wolfman, as if it were some sort of tribute to the Lon Chaney
Jr. classic. This alone is enough to bring about some sort of curse - look out
Craven and Williamson! The nerve. Cursed ‘does’ offer up a couple of
twists, but they’re not surprising, and what’s more, the movie scarcely
delivers any decent scares.
Furthermore,
I’m getting very tired of Williamson’s homosexual grandstanding. Say
it once, say it loud, he’s gay and he’s proud. Alright Kevin! We get
it. It’s fine, but can you be a little more creative with your character
development? The revelation that one of Cursed’s main characters is gay is
so obvious and so lame that it serves as nothing more than a distraction. It doesn’t
even work in a humorous, satirical sort of way. It’s just dumb. I’m
all for a heroic gay character in a film, as long as that character is serving
the story and not penciled-in for blatant P.C. posturing.
Beyond
that, Cursed is a dull attempt at rekindling that old werewolf mythos that worked
so beautifully in the 80's in films like An American Werewolf in London and The
Howling. Those movies masterfully tread the fine line between true horror and
hilariously biting satire. This movie by comparison isn’t nearly as fun and
it fails as both a horror film and a teen angst/high school picture.
For
all of Cursed’s real life victims (including those who pay to see it) it
is Rick Baker whom I feel the most sorry for. Rick, my heart goes out to you man.
You are a truly amazing effects artist, but no one will see it in this picture.
Hell, the one transformation sequence we ‘do’ get is a boring, half-assed,
CGI cheap shot. I sure hope your stuff finds it’s way into the DVD version
and features.
Don’t
waste your time with the howlingly dumb Cursed. Stay home and rent the underrated
Ginger Snaps instead. As far as werewolf pictures go, it’s much more creative
and infinitely more witty.
