CURSED

Cursed
Dir: Wes Craven, 2005
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257516/
Reviewed by: Whitney

Summary: A brother and a sister are driving (wait, this sounds remotely familiar, but I promise, the premise is different from yesterday's review of Jeepers Creepers) and are involved in a car accident and wind up wounded by a large wolfish-bear creature which, unbeknown to them, isn't a traditional animal at all, but rather a werewolf.  The hunt is on to track down and kill the master werewolf before they themselves turn into the beasts.

Review: Let's start with the cast.  Talk about a B celebrity cameo fest!  I think everyone who has ever been on a WB/CW/UPN (or whatever the hell it is called these days) is in this movie and then some.  It's pretty insane.  Jesse Eisenberg and Christina Ricci have the lead roles as Jimmy and Ellie, respectively and play parent-less siblings living in L.A.  This is why Craven can throw in cameos from, oh, say, Scott Baio just for the hell of it.  The acting is alright and pretty cheesy, but, considering the vibe of the film, if the actors took it any more seriously, I would feel an uncomfortable disconnect.  There were some good one liners, but nothing overly memorable.  Eisenberg does what he does best and plays a socially misfit toy, er, teen while Christina's huge forehead (and possibly receding hair line) seem to constantly be a distraction from her actual performance for me. 

The werewolf costumes are a bit silly.  Some of the werewolf parts are over done with CGI, but I'm glad they kept some actual people dressed up in make-up and costumes.  If you are expecting a scary werewolf film, don't expect it from Cursed.  Actually, you probably shouldn't expect it ever.  Werewolf films aren't ever really frightening, but rather pretty humorous and festered with cheese, which I love.  I can understand why this film didn't rate very high amongst the critics, but is considered a modern cult classic.  Comical gore + silly wolf make-up + a buttload of B-listers, yeah, I'm in!  Cursed falls somewhere on the werewolf scale between Teen Wolf and American Werewolf in London (or maybe it's Paris.  Which ever is better.  I tend to get them confused.)

I don't really find myself having any real beef with this movie.  It seems a little low budget for a Wes Craven film, but maybe that's because of all those cameos.  Did I mention the Cameos?  To be perfectly frank, the only thing less scary then werewolf movies are mummy movies.  Mummies = not scary (keep that in mind if you ever plan on making a horror movie.)  For the cult value, it's worth a watch.

I guess this film really just falls into the category of silly horror.  I don't think there is one part where I even jumped.  As far as scary movies go, it was pretty PG (though not actually PG.)  I recommend this movie if you don't like to be scared and enjoy silliness instead of thrills.  Or if you  have a lingering crush on Joshua Jackson from his Dawson's Creek days. 

Rating: 7/10
Scare Scale: Scared Silly