"Cursed" screened last night.

[harosa]

A friend and I got a chance to see a "rough cut" of Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's take on the werewolf genre last night and all I can say is, in short, while it isnt great, its still a fun ride.



SOME SPOILERS(nothing too blatant)








I'm sure some people know this movie had a troubled history when it went back for reshoots and they basically recast and reshot the whole movie from scratch and it does feel that way in some scenes with some character and plot shifts out of the blue and an abrupt ending that just feels strained. This movie doesnt offer anything new to the werewolf genre per se but it does have a sense of humor in alot of scenes, especially the high school scenes that play on the whole "jock/homopohobic teasing" scene that plays off nicely in a later, hilarious scene.
Performance wise Christina Ricci and the kid playing her brother are nice but the scenes where they start to act like werewolves after being bitten in the movie's first "Scream" like killing scene are just too reminiscent of a 100 other films, someone in the audience compared it to Teen Wolf in a funny way, especially with the younger brother having a reawakening in school now that he's got some werewolf in him. The rest of the case, from Shannon ELizabeth, Mya, Portia Rossi to Michael Rosenbaum, Scott Baio and Joshua Jackson are ok but mainly in the movie to provide red herrings to the identity of the main werewolf and then you scratch them off your list as the movie progresses. And yes, I did say Scott Baio, who is in the movie for about 2 minute tops as himself and does nothing plot wise (this was not the case in an earlier script review I read which apparently was filmed then scrapped) yet gets his name in the opening credits, that was weird, if we were going by time-wise then Craig Kilborn deserved a co-starring credit. Baio is in the movie for some notoritey but It just feels sad not seeing him doing anything, I was happy to see the man still working though. One funny note, Michael "Lex Luthor" Rosenbaum's hair piece is so distracting I thought for a minute it might be the werewolf but alas, it wasnt.
Now for the real juice, the werewolf FX and gore, designed by Rick Baker and taken over by the KNB folks (read on some other sites) are just awesome, this is one great looking biped wolf easily eclipsing Helsing's take, even when it's CG or man in suit onscreen it just looks big and awesome, and you really get to see it all around, once they show it they dont hide it.
Sooo, overall I give the movie a recommendation although it feels slapdash in the non-werewolf scenes, the plot is the same as before-people get bitten, have to find the head werewolf, yad, yada, yada- the humor does come out sometimes and the monster elements work great, there are some nice scares and grisly gore(whether that gets trimmed who knows), and some cliches' but no one is perfect, this isnt the redefiniton of the werewolf genre that Scream was for slasher films some started labelling it when they heard Craven and Williamson were involved but it is fun nonetheless, and hey, how many movies can claim to have a werewolf dog and a werewolf giving someone the finger.

[Geofferson]

I was wondering why this thing was taking so damn long to be made.

[scott shelton]

Originally posted by harosa
but it does have a sense of humor in alot of scenes, especially the high school scenes that play on the whole "jock/homopohobic teasing" scene that plays off nicely in a later, hilarious scene.

Oh great, another SCREAM-like comedy. That's what Wes Craven should be spending his time on again. :(

[Matthew Chmiel]

Oh great, another SCREAM-like comedy. That's what Wes Craven should be spending his time on again.
Scream was great as was Scream 2. Now Scream 3 failed on so many levels as it became everything what the first two films were making fun of. Scream 3 tried to play itself seriously whereas the first two didn't.

If Cursed is done similar to the style of those first two Scream movies and not the third, then I'm game. And in all honesty, it can't be as bad as Music of my Heart. This film might just be decent for the fact that Joanie Love Chachi's Scott Baio is in it.

[scott shelton]

Originally posted by Matthew Chmiel
Scream was great as was Scream 2. Now Scream 3 failed on so many levels as it became everything what the first two films were making fun of. Scream 3 tried to play itself seriously whereas the first two didn't.

If Cursed is done similar to the style of those first two Scream movies and not the third, then I'm game. And in all honesty, it can't be as bad as Music of my Heart. This film might just be decent for the fact that Joanie LoveS Chachi's Scott Baio is in it.

SCREAM 2 didn't take itself seriously? You really think so? Interesting... Forgive me if I disagree.

If memory serves me correct, SCREAM 3 was the one that made the most fun of the three films.

But I think SCREAM is one of the worst horror films of the 90s, and ruined the genre for good. So I'll bow out of this thread.

[Julie Walker]

Well I thought Scream was a great fun film,while the sequels were very lame(& yes part 2 takes tiself dreadfully serious) as were the clones.

But I have pretty much lost hope with any genre efforts by Dimension/Miramax...and the reshoots are no surprise. They do this with just about all their films,from the Halloween sequels,to this and beyond.

Yet if it looks good. I may give it a fair chance. We shall see.

[harosa]

Reshoots are one thing, totally scrapping almost a whole film and then starting from scratch is another. First this and then it happened to Exorcist.

[Zodiac_Speaking]

I love Wes Craven. He's my second fav director in horror right behind John Carpenter. But reading that seems like he's trying to recapture Scream-like mania. And it appears to be Scream, except with werewolves, not masked killers.

Two words for Wes:

Go independent. (His best films were his non-studio ones.)

[harosa]

The movie does have its Scream moments, especially in the casting.