The Sinister Horror Movie Review: Cursed (The Unrated Version)

[Sinister]

Is it me, or does Wes Craven need to be beaten with a bag of oranges, rotten ones at that? At the very least, he needs to be prevented from either making films, or go back and watch some of the better Horror ever made including one of his own, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and re-learn how to make them. Cursed is a well named film and not only because it's about a cursed lycanthropic bloodline.

Ellie (Christina Ricci) and her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) have a problem. Something comes along and disrupts their mundane existence and with the occurence of a full moon. After a carwreck on Mulholland Drive, the kids are witness to the killing of the other driver (Shannon Elizabeth) and they themselves are mauled by what the authorities want to believe is a mountain lion or bear, but we as Horror fans know better. Jimmy keeps insisting that their attacker was a werewolf and that he and his sister were "cursed." Eventually the siblings begin to exhibit signs of the beast and soon begin to want to track down the monster that visited this particular doom on them. Once Craven throws us some red herrings about "Who could it be," we are dragged into a very silly scene where brother and sister face off against their carnivorous adversary. After the confrontation and everything seems to be resolved, the duo are treated to yet another surprise. One that I saw coming a mile away. The ending is anti-climatic and some of our heroes stroll off into the moonlight, not a care in the world as if the trail of corpses and bloodshed had never happened.

There are some good points to this film unfortunately though there aren't many. This movie is killed by rehahsing some of the same Hollywood cliches that were tired back in the seventies. We have a psychic trying to warn others of the danger they're in (a dumb role played by Portia De Rossi) a weredog, hapahazard directing, a plot filled with so many holes that it resembles the inside of a bee-hive and probably the worst looking CGI Werewolf since those sorry looking excuses for Wolf men back in An American Werewolf in Paris. Most of the time the cast just looks lost and Judy Greer turns out one of the worst acting bouts of her career; I really loved her performance in Jawbreaker as the wallflower turned bombshell, but this was just the pits. If you ever break down and watch this you'll see what I'm talking about and no further explanantion will be needed.

All-in-all this was a total waste of time with very few rewarding moments. I'm still trying to figure out why this was unrated. Even with the added scenes, this still could barely be given an "R" rating. Aaahhh, what the movie industry will stoop to trying to sell more DVD's. Definitely a film for completists only.

Rating: 1 1/2 out of a possible 5 stars.

[Zombie-F]

It's on my Netflix Queue... unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your point of view) it's got a long wait, so it may be a while before I get my hands on it.

The general concensus is that the Unrated version is a little better because of some stuff other than gore that was cut out, but that it's still a pretty bad movie.

[Doctorthingit]

I think it's only fair to blame the majority of this disaster upon the studio and those execs who forced him to edit and re-shoot the film until there was nothing recognizeable from it's original inception to the point where he refused to have anything to do with it. The special DVD came out and there are no post production features with him in them.

[Zombie-F]

And, if memory serves me correctly, Craven did zero promoting before the film's release. I should state, that my reasons for not being excited about seeing this are in no way Wes Craven's fault. I too strongly believe it was studio meddling that brought this flick to its knees.

[Sinister]

Craven didn't HAVE to direct this monstrosity. I'm quite certain he's a powerful enough entity in the Hollywood community that he maintains at least SOME control over the movie he makes. So yes, I believe that Craven is as much at fault as anyone. All he had to do was say "No." I find it funny that if a movie bombs that the people involved with it all at once abandon ship and want nothing to do with it, but up to that point they are touting its creation to be the best thing since sliced cheese food.

[Doctorthingit]

Craven didn't HAVE to direct this monstrosity. I'm quite certain he's a powerful enough entity in the Hollywood community that he maintains at least SOME control over the movie he makes. So yes, I believe that Craven is as much at fault as anyone. All he had to do was say "No." I find it funny that if a movie bombs that the people involved with it all at once abandon ship and want nothing to do with it, but up to that point they are touting its creation to be the best thing since sliced cheese food.
Interesting observation. However, I think it's not applicable in the case of Wes Craven.

[Zombie-F]

Ok, I saw Cursed yesterday. It was a pretty average movie. I don't know why everyone hates it so much. It didn't drum up enough emotion in me to throw such a powerful feeling at it. It was just kind of there.

I'd give it 2 out of 5 rankings on my arbitrary ranking system.

And as for Craven having any clout in Hollywood, I think you're overestimating the man's power in Hollywood. Granted, he has put out a few classics, but he's also done enough movies that are just "ok" or worse to damage to his career.

Remember the "Masters of Horror" special from Showtime a few years ago? He admitted in that special that he hates the Hollywood system because it forces directors to compromise their visions so much to the point that often times the final product doesn't resemble what the director had in mind in the first place.

Or it may have been John Carpenter who said that. Or George Romero. I gotta watch that again someday... except the kid I loaned it to never gave it back.

[Doctorthingit]

And as for Craven having any clout in Hollywood, I think you're overestimating the man's power in Hollywood.
And so do all the other horror fans who like to say Craven's gone mainstream now.

[Sinister]

He admitted in that special that he hates the Hollywood system because it forces directors to compromise their visions so much to the point that often times the final product doesn't resemble what the director had in mind in the first place.

He can say he hates it all he wants, but I guarantee you his principles won't even be a consideration if they waggle some green in front of his face and told him frame by frame how they wanted him to direct a remake of The Sound of Music with a lame serial killer like Ghostface going around and offing anyone who looks like they modeled for a Swiss Miss box.

Maybe Craven and some of his cronies who are so tired of feeding from the Hollywood tit need to get together and form some other type of film makers guild where they could have support from that particular community rather than taking what table scraps The Big Machine has to offer. I'm sure there's others out there that would support something like this.

[RAXL]

Keeping this thread focused on Wec Craven, not on this movie that I didn't see, Wes has a new one coming out.
I saw a commercial for it the other night. It looked more like an action movie than a horror flick.
I can't remember the name of it, who was in it, or what it was about, though.
It looked that good. :p :eek:

[Doctorthingit]

He can say he hates it all he wants, but I guarantee you his principles won't even be a consideration if they waggle some green in front of his face and told him frame by frame how they wanted him to direct a remake of The Sound of Music with a lame serial killer like Ghostface going around and offing anyone who looks like they modeled for a Swiss Miss box.
Sounds like you saw a few pictures of things going on and tried to judge based on that. You're not giving Craven any credit for his own individual ideas or things he still wants to accomplish as a director. You forget the differences between a film director and a studio executive.