CURSED
Cast: Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson...
Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Review Date: 02/27/05
Written By: suj
Rating: 5/10
THE PLOT:
Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are siblings living humdrum lives in idyllic Los Angeles. Once night while driving home, the two are bitten by a werewolf. Now possessed with a taste for blood, a heightened sexual allure, and marked with a pentagram on their palms, the pair struggle to understand their transformations, hoping to find the werewolf that started it all in an effort to save their own lives.
THE REVIEW:
To begin this soon to be mess of jumbled up words that faintly resembles a movie review I just want to say that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's pervious collaboration, Scream, is one of my favorite movies of all time. Some people describe that trilogy of films to be a cheesy raunchy teen fest, but to me the first installment holds a special place in the depths of my black heart. You see, in between the 6th and 7th grade I wasn't all obsessed with movies as I am now, I was mainly into FOX's Saturday morning line-up. Then on one particular weekend I stayed over at my cousin’s place where they rented the movie Scream. Upon its first viewing I absolutely loved the film and continued to watch it again and again over the weekend. The months that followed my obsession of the film grew and grew and a few of my dear classmates can attest to said obsession. Scream open the door to all the great films around the world, sure that’s an odd comment to make, but it’s true. Scream was the catalyst to my un-holy devotion to the wonderful facet of moving pictures.
So, when news came that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson were going to re-team and unleash a long-awaited follow up to their pervious glorified collaboration I was giddy as a school girl. This new film, “Cursed,” was a modern day take on the legendary werewolf tale. I thought this was going to be another viewing of orgasmic pleasure, but when filming came about and the finished project was done and delivered it didn’t come out quite the way Dimension Films wanted it to. So, the production was ordered back with a reconstructed script, re-cast roles, and in the end they shot an entirely different movie. To make matters worse, in January, the film was re-cut again to tone down the material from an R rating to a mall-friendly PG-13.
Watching this newly finished product is like opening a jigsaw puzzle box and finding only one piece to work with. “Cursed” is a thorough mess from opening to closing and it pains me to say it, but this film takes Craven on a career-ending ride and reminds the viewer what a hack Williamson truly is. Everything in this movie has been done before and I liked it better when it was called "Scream". Wes Craven is indeed a genius, but here he proves us otherwise as the film looks more like a bad WB TV movie then an actual theatrical release. What Kevin Williamson has done here is that he collects storyline's from everything he has ever done, be it that the high-school jock is gay (as seen in Dawson's Creek) or in the impeccable Hollywood in-jokes (as seen in scream) or the 'who is the killer' theme (also seen in scream) and a slew other references to this burgeoning resume.
While Christina Ricci is a young beautiful actress with luscious eyes one can get lost in, she does nothing here to appease. Joshua Jackson is lost in this fucked up script and some goes with all the other throwaway young talent who just show up here and there and do nothing to advance the plot, that is if there was an actual plot. The only one of the bunch that was entertaining was Jesse Eisenberg and I don't want to get into because if you actually go out and watch this production I don't want to ruin the films only saving grace.
As a horror film, “Cursed” doesn’t have much to do. With most of the story cleaved away, all the film really becomes is a series of werewolf-stalks-prey moments, complete with cheap scares and some rather awful CG monsters. Thanks to the films PG-13 the intended gore came off like your sisters first period and with that the horror elements of the film had nothing to work with. Craven seems to understand that his picture is a genre dud because he starts to guide the material away from scares to laughs in the last reel. And to attest to that notion there’s a shot featuring a werewolf giving Ellie the finger! The film attempts a “Scream” merge of comedy and horror, and that cookie crumbles on both ends.
Hollywood doesn’t offer many second chances, yet “Cursed” received one when things didn’t go so well with the first cut of the film. Re-shot with new material, this Wes Craven/Kevin Williamson re-teaming remains a pitiful disaster the second time around, made ever worse with a recent hatchet job to get the once R rated film down to a PG-13. There is, quite literally (aside from the work of Jesse Eisenberg), no reason to see it.
Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Review Date: 02/27/05
Written By: suj
Rating: 5/10
THE PLOT:
Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are siblings living humdrum lives in idyllic Los Angeles. Once night while driving home, the two are bitten by a werewolf. Now possessed with a taste for blood, a heightened sexual allure, and marked with a pentagram on their palms, the pair struggle to understand their transformations, hoping to find the werewolf that started it all in an effort to save their own lives.
THE REVIEW:
To begin this soon to be mess of jumbled up words that faintly resembles a movie review I just want to say that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's pervious collaboration, Scream, is one of my favorite movies of all time. Some people describe that trilogy of films to be a cheesy raunchy teen fest, but to me the first installment holds a special place in the depths of my black heart. You see, in between the 6th and 7th grade I wasn't all obsessed with movies as I am now, I was mainly into FOX's Saturday morning line-up. Then on one particular weekend I stayed over at my cousin’s place where they rented the movie Scream. Upon its first viewing I absolutely loved the film and continued to watch it again and again over the weekend. The months that followed my obsession of the film grew and grew and a few of my dear classmates can attest to said obsession. Scream open the door to all the great films around the world, sure that’s an odd comment to make, but it’s true. Scream was the catalyst to my un-holy devotion to the wonderful facet of moving pictures.
So, when news came that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson were going to re-team and unleash a long-awaited follow up to their pervious glorified collaboration I was giddy as a school girl. This new film, “Cursed,” was a modern day take on the legendary werewolf tale. I thought this was going to be another viewing of orgasmic pleasure, but when filming came about and the finished project was done and delivered it didn’t come out quite the way Dimension Films wanted it to. So, the production was ordered back with a reconstructed script, re-cast roles, and in the end they shot an entirely different movie. To make matters worse, in January, the film was re-cut again to tone down the material from an R rating to a mall-friendly PG-13.
Watching this newly finished product is like opening a jigsaw puzzle box and finding only one piece to work with. “Cursed” is a thorough mess from opening to closing and it pains me to say it, but this film takes Craven on a career-ending ride and reminds the viewer what a hack Williamson truly is. Everything in this movie has been done before and I liked it better when it was called "Scream". Wes Craven is indeed a genius, but here he proves us otherwise as the film looks more like a bad WB TV movie then an actual theatrical release. What Kevin Williamson has done here is that he collects storyline's from everything he has ever done, be it that the high-school jock is gay (as seen in Dawson's Creek) or in the impeccable Hollywood in-jokes (as seen in scream) or the 'who is the killer' theme (also seen in scream) and a slew other references to this burgeoning resume.
While Christina Ricci is a young beautiful actress with luscious eyes one can get lost in, she does nothing here to appease. Joshua Jackson is lost in this fucked up script and some goes with all the other throwaway young talent who just show up here and there and do nothing to advance the plot, that is if there was an actual plot. The only one of the bunch that was entertaining was Jesse Eisenberg and I don't want to get into because if you actually go out and watch this production I don't want to ruin the films only saving grace.
As a horror film, “Cursed” doesn’t have much to do. With most of the story cleaved away, all the film really becomes is a series of werewolf-stalks-prey moments, complete with cheap scares and some rather awful CG monsters. Thanks to the films PG-13 the intended gore came off like your sisters first period and with that the horror elements of the film had nothing to work with. Craven seems to understand that his picture is a genre dud because he starts to guide the material away from scares to laughs in the last reel. And to attest to that notion there’s a shot featuring a werewolf giving Ellie the finger! The film attempts a “Scream” merge of comedy and horror, and that cookie crumbles on both ends.
Hollywood doesn’t offer many second chances, yet “Cursed” received one when things didn’t go so well with the first cut of the film. Re-shot with new material, this Wes Craven/Kevin Williamson re-teaming remains a pitiful disaster the second time around, made ever worse with a recent hatchet job to get the once R rated film down to a PG-13. There is, quite literally (aside from the work of Jesse Eisenberg), no reason to see it.
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