Hey folks, Harry here with a review that tells us that green paint on the red wall is indeed the green paint on the red wall. Now watch out for the spoilers if you plan on scratching this emulsion, and what horror fan wouldn't, cuz good... bad... it's Craven, and I've never not given him my time and if you're a horror fan, ya never won't either.
Hey Harry, (hope you're on the mend)
Buffy Babe here again. I tagged along with a friend to a screening of Cursed, and I thought I'd weigh in on it (since I've been accused of being a plant for being overly positive about Constantine). Everyone knows the deets on this puppy, specifically the drama that went on behind the scenes, including an almost a complete reshoot of the flick last year. When you hear something like that, you pretty much have to prepare yourself for the worst. And while this flick isn't the suckiest werewolf movie I've ever seen, it's certainly not the best.
I went into it hoping against hope that I'd seeing something MAYBE as good as Gingersnaps (a truly fun indie horror flick), but unfortunately, my dreams were dashed about 30 minutes into it. Let's start with biggest problem -- the script. Do you remember that South Park episode where Cartman decides to start a Christian rock group, and just takes popular songs and replaces all the words with words like "God", "Christ", and "faith"? Well, that's the feeling you get with Cursed. Somebody basically took the script from Scream, crossed out the word "killer" and replaced it with "werewolf." You've got the sweet lead, the hot chick gets killed in the first ten minutes, the mysterious good-looking guy skulks around the whole movie, nobody believes the dorky believer, and the pyscho de jour is added in for comic relief. If that wasn't bad enough, we're supposed to block out all the smack Wes Craven laid down in the Scream franchise. There are RULES PEOPLE RULES! At least with Scream, it was smart, it was slick and scary, and you didn't really figure it out until the very end.
If that wasn't bad enough, I really have a problem when I recognize a plot point from one of my favorite shows ever. Horror genre fans are pretty savvy--- are we not supposed to notice when a plot element gets lifted from a Buffy episode (A pox on those who steal from the genius that is Joss Whedon!) in which Zander accidently discovers a secret about the school bully? Yeah, it was really funny the first time it played out on the boob tube a few years back, but when it gets rehashed for the big screen...eh, not so much.
Now, as for the cast, it's like watching an episode of Dawson's Creek with CGI added in for effect (Could Kevin Williamson be running out of material?). Everyone including Christina Ricci comes off really wooden and delivers lines matter-of-factly like they're on a double-dose of Prozac.
Did I expect this "gem" to be the second coming of An American Werewolf in London? Obviously not. But it has a really cool concept -- just sucky implementation: I guess I've been spoiled by perfect pitch wolfie scenes like one in the Howling where they blow away Dee Wallace live on the air and then they cut away to a dog food commerical. Alas, this flick just seems to come off like a bad spanish soap opera with special effects (Dios mio! Cover your ears and eyes! The big bad CGI werewolf is going to eat the surgically enhanced starlet!). The name is apt. Cursed just can't escape the ghosts of good horror movies past.
Buffy Babe over and out.
