Barks worse than it bites
“Don’t worry, it’s more scared of you than you are of it”
Cursed
Wes Craven’s directing ability has waxed and waned over the years, with the last noticeable high being post-modern teen horror Scream. Cursed sees Craven again teaming up with writer Kevin Williamson in an attempt to repeat their success. Sadly, they fail. Cursed is a modern tale of werewolves, and as with previous outings from these collaborators, the emphasis is on humour rather than horror.
Brother and sister Jimmy (Eisenberg) and Ellie (Ricci) find themselves gaining new powers after an encounter with a werewolf. The only way to break the werewolf’s curse is, unsurprisingly to kill the beast. The cast is filled with faces familiar to teen horror – most noticeably Joshua Jackson as Ellie’s desirable boyfriend, and a brief appearance by Portia di Rossi (of Ally McBeal fame) as a fortune teller.
However, they can do little to spice up limp dialogue, which is redeemed only by the odd entertaining one-liner. (One such line directed at the fortune teller: “Can’t you psychically tell when you’re annoying someone?”) Other elements of humour appear in the transformation caused by the curse. Gifted with great strength and unnatural sexual allure Jimmy, a typical high school geek, sets about putting bullies in their place and turning heads.
It’s been done before (Spiderman anyone?), but at least now they know well enough to be ironic, and the subplot is still reasonably diverting. The horror and action in Cursed are where the major flaws creep in. Aside from a couple of jumpy moments there is about as much tension as in an episode of the Teletubbies. The werewolf is just a big ball of fur and would struggle to terrorise a small cat. Sadly, the lack of scares and only mildly-amusing humour lead to a film that is mediocre at best.
It’s a crime to say it, but Cursed just lacks bite.
28th Apr 2005