It being the full moon and all, I figured it would be a good idea to watch a werewolf movie. Unfortunately Netflix doesn’t seem to have many of those streaming. At least ones I haven’t already seen. So Cursed it was.
Cursed, 2005. Dir. Wes Craven, Written by Kevin Williamson. Starring Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson.
I wasn’t really planning on watching any Wes Craven this year since I’ve kind of covered him in previous years. A lot. But then this was one of the few werewolf movies on Netflix streaming I could find that I haven’t seen. I knew it was supposed to be pretty terrible but it’s Wes Craven! And Kevin Williamson! I had to at least give it a chance.
Oh well. That happened.
It’s pretty bad.
I don’t know what it is, but Cursed is somehow missing all of the snappy fun that I’ve come to expect from their team up. It’s clunky, boring, and fairly unimaginative. We get a lot of the genre tropes with none of the subversion. For example, the movie opens with a gypsy fortune teller warning two girls to beware of the moon. She seems like an interesting character. When she shows up again half way through the movie you would think that she would have some cool role to play in the resolution. Or maybe something wacky would happen to her. Something unexpected. Something to turn things on their head. Nope. She has a couple of lines, is told to get lost, and then she does. Never see her again. What was the point of that? I’m not sure.
There are a few fun moments. I did enjoy how the werewolf curse was basically equated to what it’s like trying to date in LA. Truth. And I loved the little sub-plot with Jesse Eisenberg and the school bully. That I was not expecting. Otherwise, there’s not much that stands out here. Ricci is doing some weird, wispy damsel in distress thing. Joshua Jackson is fine but Joshua Jackson is always fine. Eisenberg is Eisenberg. Take that as you will.
Didn’t really like the special effects or wolf make-up. Which is kind of important in a werewolf movie. They could have done better.
I do like that Judy Greer is here and I do like how they use her. She always makes me happy. She needs to be around more, she’s fun.
Otherwise, lackluster. That’s kinda all I’ve got on this one. Maybe I should have just re-watched An American Werewolf in London. Or Ginger Snaps. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen Ginger Snaps.
What other good werewolf movies are out there? Any streaming that I can watch this month?
Previous Years:
2013: Wes Craven
2012: The Baby’s Room
2011: A Nightmare On Elm Street
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