Cursed (2005)

Director: Wes Craven

Writer: Kevin Williamson

Tagline: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Actors: Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, Jesse Eisenberg, Judy Greer, Scott Baio, Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Rosenbaum, Shannon Elizabeth, Mýa

Runtime: 1h 37m

Category: Werewolf

Synopsis: On their way home, Ellie and Jimmy, get into a car accident, running the other car off the road and into the woods. After freeing the woman inside, the three of them are attacked by a large animal. Now, both Ellie and Jimmy are starting to notice strange thing happening to them. Jimmy finds out that they may have been attacked by a werewolf, causing heightened senses and a taste for human blood. Ellie’s boyfriend Jake, who has also been acting really weird, has been preparing for the grand opening of his new nightclub. Unfortunately, the party is crashed by a giant werewolf, who we come to find out is close to Ellie. As the battle ensues, Ellie and Jimmy end up finding out who bit them that night of the car accident…and the truth will shock you!

Review: It first view I was not impressed. I thought that it was amateur at best and was turned off by all of the CGI. But it has been all over MoviePlex for the last year and I got a chance to give it one more shot. Now I have to watch it every time it’s on. I Love this movie! After I started looking objectively I noticed some nuances that perked my attention. The story, although not exactly new, was given a nice twist which solidified some credibility for it. Since the legend states that the lycan (lycanthrope) curse is not an instantaneous transformation, I was pleased to see that Kevin Williamson had done his homework. Spreading out the changes of a matter of days was absolutely brilliant and adds to the film’s credibility. Not often do writers/directors get these types of transformations right; most just go for cinematic value and story length. It was nice to see that they had taken their time to make it right.

The graphics that were used in this movie were actually pretty good. I was impressed with the fact that the werewolves that were used were not all CGI. CGI is cool and all, and you can do things with CGI you can’t do in real life (like make a werewolf dog…so tats!), but there is something about a guy in a costume that makes the character more menacing. To see the werewolf behave more like a rabid human as opposed to a wild dog makes the situation look more like real life.

I was actually not expecting much in the way of acting but I was sorely mistaken. The characters in this movie were very well portrayed and nicely executed. Christina Ricci did a nice job playing a neurotic workaholic with relationship issues. And Jesse Eisenberg was perfect for the strong-willed geek with a crush on the captain of the wrestling team’s girlfriend. Both did a good job with their characters and made them believable. The only one that I was not impressed with was Joshua Jackson; I don’t know if it was just his character or his acting but his performance was just so flat. There was no substance to his acting and didn’t convince me of his character (which was a shame because I liked him in The Skulls).

Apart from Jackson’s performance (or lack thereof), the only other thing I didn’t like about the movie was that Ricci and Eisenberg never got to totally transform. I would have liked to see a werewolf battle between two newbies and a novice; that would have been tats!

Rating: 21. I would have given it a 22 or 23 but thanks to Jackson I couldn’t. Plus the cameo by Scott Baio was totally unnecessary; he did nothing for the story or the plot. I would have loved for him to have not been in the movie at all. Either way, the movie was great with some wonderful shots and a solid cast. If you get the chance to see it, especially if you like werewolf movies, don’t miss this movie! (21of25).