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MOVIE INFO

Director:
Wes Craven
Cast:
Christina Ricci, Shannon Elizabeth, Joshua Jackson, Jesse Eisenberg
Writing Credits:
Kevin Williamson

Synopsis:
A werewolf loose in Los Angeles changes the lives of three young adults who learn that the only way to break the curse put upon them is to kill the one who started it all.

Box Office:
Budget
$38 million.
Opening Weekend
$9,600,000 on 2805 screens.
Domestic Gross
$19,297,522.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13/NR.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English

Runtime: 97 min. (Theatrical)
99 min. (Unrated)
Price: $34.98
Release Date: 5/10/2022

Bonus:
• Select Scene Commentary from Special Effects Makeup Supervisor Greg Nicotero and Actor Derek Mears
• “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” Featurette
• “A Movie That Lives Up to Its Title” Featurette
• “Behind the Fangs” Featurette
• “The Cursed Effects” Featurette
• “Creature Editing 101” Featurette
• “Becoming a Werewolf” Featurette
• “Car Wreck” Featurette
• “Parking Garage” Featurette
• “Tinsel” Featurette
• “Final Fight” Featurette
• Trailer


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RELATED REVIEWS


Cursed: Collector's Edition [Blu-Ray] (2005)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (May 1, 2022)

In 1984, Wes Craven created one of horror’s great icons via Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

In 1996, Craven redefined the genre with the influential, self-referential Scream.

In 2005, Craven churned out a pretty boring werewolf movie with Cursed.

20-something babes Jenny (Mya) and Becky (Shannon Elizabeth) visit a boardwalk psychic (Portia de Rossi) to learn whether Becky should continue to see her dog of a boyfriend. The seer provides a much more disturbing message of blood, however, and freaks out the girls.

Then we meet high school student Jimmy Myers (Jesse Eisenberg), a nerd with a crush on classmate Brooke Mueller (Kristina Anapau). Though he sits behind her in many classes, she doesn’t know he’s alive, and his attention spurs the bullying aggression of her boyfriend Bo (Milo Ventimiglia).

Jimmy’s sister Ellie (Christina Ricci) works in the talent department at the Craig Kilborn show, and her boyfriend Jake Taylor (Joshua Jackson) puts together the opening of movie memorabilia museum. He uses those pressures as an excuse for some “space”, which Ellie takes negatively, especially since Jake’s got a very checkered romantic past.

When Ellie and Jimmy drive home from the museum, they run into an animal and crash into another car. It turns out Becky’s behind the wheel of that vehicle.

They go to rescue her but when they get her out of the car, a beast attacks her. This creature rips Becky in half and causes minor wounds to Ellie and Jimmy.

Jimmy claims it was a wolf but no one believes him; all the authorities think it’s a bear or a large feline. When he goes online, he learns about many “unsolved animal attacks” that some attribute to wolves.

Strange developments encourage his theories that something’s up. Both Jimmy and Ellie start to crave raw meat, and they show heightened reflexes and senses.

Eventually Jimmy starts to figure out that they’re now werewolves. The rest of the movie follows what happens to them and their attempts to change their furry fate.

When I look at the problems connected to Cursed, they don’t stem from the wolf attacks, as the movie’s action elements provide its sole pleasures. Horror veteran Craven stages these to be chaotic and exciting, and they allow the film to sporadically come to life.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie bores. In past efforts, Craven managed to create some fairly interesting characters to maintain our attention, as Scream came packed with cliché but fun personalities, and Elm Street at least offered Freddy.

Cursed lacks a prominent villain, especially since we’re not allowed to learn the identity of the main wolf until the end. Of course, just like Scream, it gives us some leads, but the reveal intends to surprise us, and that leaves the flick without a concrete antagonist.

Too bad the eventual reveal comes as such a non-surprise. No spoilers here, of course, but the other characters fail to create real personalities, so we don’t get a charge from the identity of the “baddie”.

Ever since she first came to prominence in 1991’s The Addams Family, Ricci proved herself to be a quirky and compelling screen presence.

She can’t bust through here, unfortunately. Every once in a while it looks like she’ll finally do something distinctive.

For instance, when Ellie starts to show her animal side, Ricci displays signs of life. These quickly dissipate, however, and the movie goes back to its usual ennui.

I find it hard to get past Jackson’s miserable non-performance as Jake. For one, I can’t figure out why this guy entrances all the ladies.

He’s a decent looking dude but he comes totally free of any form of charisma. It seems decidedly implausible that all the women fall over themselves to bag him.

Jackson’s bizarre acting choices make things worse. He seems unable to open his mouth more than a sliver - is it wired shut? - and he does little more scowl and clench his jaw. Maybe he thinks this will convey the character’s lupine side, but instead he just looks constipated.

All of the drama builds to a disappointingly anti-climactic ending. We don’t care about the big reveal when we learn the identity of the main baddie, and the fight sequence seems unsatisfying.

Cursed works best with “smash and grab” scenes, so when we get quick, vicious monster attacks, they prosper. With longer pieces on display, it gets old quickly.

The same goes for Cursed as a whole. With insubstantial characters and a thin plot, it depends on action to maintain our interest. The movie tosses out enough good monster mayhem to make sure we don’t fall asleep, but it eventually peters out and ends as an unsatisfying flick.


The Disc Grades: Picture B/ Audio A-/ Bonus B-

Cursed appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a good but not great image.

Most of the movie looked appropriately concise and well-defined, but a few exceptions occurred, as sporadic shots felt a little “off”. Nonetheless, the majority of the film appeared accurate and concise.

I saw no jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes failed to appear. Grain seemed natural, and source flaws remained absent.

To reflect the predominance of moonlight, Cursed went with a decidedly bluish palette. This didn’t overwhelm more natural hues, but much of the movie showed that influence. Across the board, the colors seemed satisfying, as they reflected the production design well.

Blacks were generally deep and taut as well, but they could seem somewhat crushed at times. A few low-light shots looked slightly murky, but those popped up infrequently.

I found little to complain about when I examined the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Cursed. An action horror mix, it accentuated the action well, and not surprisingly, the various attack sequences fared the best.

Wolves came at us from all sides and created an engrossing feel for the fury of the fights. Many other scenes added great ambience, with a gold star going to the “Maze of Mirrors” sequence as a particularly dramatic use of all five speakers. The mix consistently portrayed a great sense of setting and helped make the movie more exciting.

Audio quality was always solid, as speech seemed natural and concise, and I noticed no edginess or other concerns. Music sounded vibrant and dynamic. The score and various songs boasted clean reproduction with good range.

Effects remained the best elements of the show, as they were aggressive and clear. Bass response was especially good and added a feeling of ferocity to the track. This was a terrific mix.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD? The lossless DTS-HD MA audio added range to an already solid Dolby Digital track.

Visuals showed good improvements. The DVD suffered from some edge haloes, and those went absent here. Throw in superior delineation and colors to make this an upgrade, even with some of the minor concerns I noted.

On this two-disc set, we find two separate editions of the film. Blu-ray One provides the movie’s “PG-13” Theatrical Cut (1:37:04), whereas Blu-ray two offers an Unrated Version (1:39:20).

With that added two minutes, 16 seconds, “Unrated” adds substantial gore to what they could show in the theatrical “PG-13” cut. For fans who want the new footage to be fresh, I won’t reveal the various bits of bloodiness, but suffice it to say that the longer Cursed depicts significantly nastier visuals.

Alongside the “Unrated” cut, we get a Select Scene Commentary from special effects makeup supervisor Greg Nicotero and actor Derek Mears. Their chat covers four scenes and lasts 31 minutes, 29 seconds.

I get the impression these tidbits were cut from a full-length commentary, as it always sounds like we join Nicotero and Mears in the middle of matters.

Normally I’d prefer a longer discussion, but since the pair don’t have that much to say in a program that barely lasts 25 percent of the film’s running time, I’m glad we got the shortened version.

Nicotero tells us the most as he covers elements related to the movie’s practical effects and discusses the use of CG as well. He relates a little about changes made to the flick’s tone and also goes over stunts and various tidbits from the set.

Mears was the guy inside the suit, and he occasionally offers that perspective, though he mostly just jokes about various movie scenes. He enjoys picking on bad effects shots, and that gives the commentary a refreshingly subversive tone. Unfortunately, we don’t get all that much concrete information, so the track is only sporadically worthwhile.

Various featurettes follow, and Behind the Fangs starts with a seven-minute, 33-second general view of the production. Here we find remarks from Mears, Nictoero, screenwriter/producer Kevin Williamson, and actors Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson, Scott Baio, Mya, Portia de Rossi, Michael Rosenbaum, and Judy Greer.

They reflect on the werewolf genre and how Cursed tries to redefine it, stunts and fights, working in the werewolf costume and visual elements, director Wes Craven’s attitude on the set, and the museum’s mannequins, and the movie’s tone.

Too much fluff appears to make this a strongly informative piece, but it has its moments. Some of the behind the scenes material is good, and we learn a smattering of factoids about the effects. It’s a painless program.

After this comes The Cursed Effects. It goes for six minutes, 45 seconds as it includes remarks from Nicotero, Mears, and Greer.

It goes through Mears’ approach to working in the costume, werewolf transition shots, the mixture of practical and CG effects, the costume’s animatronic components, and bringing some particularly gruesome scenes to life.

The highlight here comes from the test footage of Joannie’s transformation scene, and we get some other strong notes about the visual elements. Some of the notes echo those from the Nicotero/Mears commentary, but a lot of new bits appear, and the video footage makes this piece fun.

Creature Editing 101 fills five minutes, 32 seconds and offers statements from editor Patrick Lussier. He discusses the general impact an editor can have and also tells us Craven shot Cursed to be “R”.

Then he goes into the cuts made for the “PG-13” version as well as techniques used for editing horror flicks, concerns about how much to show the creature, attempts to make the werewolf look intelligent, and cutting among the various methods used to create the werewolf.

I especially like Lussier’s details about the changes executed for the “PG-13” edition, as between the lines, we can discern that the studio forced Craven to chop up his film for that rating, which probably explains why the director doesn’t participate in any of the set’s supplements. Lussier gives us an informative little chat.

Becoming a Werewolf fills seven minutes, 58 seconds with comments from Nicotero and Eisenberg. Initially it looks like it’ll offer a standard examination of the makeup used to transform actors, but it quickly subverts that expectation.

Instead it shows Nicotero and Eisenberg in a glib, tongue in cheek view of their methods. It’s surprisingly amusing.

New to this package, A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing lasts 13 minutes, 57 seconds and offers info from Mears. He discusses aspects of his werewolf performance in this brisk and informative chat.

Another new addition, A Movie That Lives Up to Its Title spans 17 minutes, 57 seconds and features more from Lussier. He tells us about his participation in the production, with an emphasis on all the problems he and Craven encountered.

Some of this feels repetitive after Lussier’s prior reel. Nonetheless, we get a tight overview here.

Disc One concludes with a trailer. Disc Two contains no extras outside of the aforementioned scene-specific commentary.

With Cursed, Wes Craven tries to do for the werewolf flick what Scream did for slasher movies. He fails. Despite a few good action sequences, it seems uninspired and tedious. The Blu-ray presents pretty good picture plus excellent audio and a few moderately tasty extras. Only die-hard horror fans are likely to get anything from this lackluster effort.

To rate this film visit the original review of CURSED

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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main