If there was ever a movie that seemed to live up to its name (at least in the media), it’s “Cursed.” Being that the film marked the re-teaming of horror director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who together gave us the “Scream Trilogy”, everybody was ready for them to fail. After all, it was widely reported that the two didn’t see eye to eye during the run of the “Scream” films and so it was a given that they probably wouldn’t this time around either. As the film went into production, stories of cast and script changes, as well as full re-shoots circulated the Internet. For all intents and purposes “Cursed” had to live down the rumors that it was a disaster. Admittedly, I fell prey to all the rumors and skipped the film in theatres. Partially because it sounded like it would be a dud. Then there was the fact that my favorite ‘movie monster’ is the werewolf, and as such I’m verrrry picky about my cinematic lycanthropy diet. Very few newer films ever live up to my expectations of what a werewolf movie should be. Of course, I love Universal’s “The Wolf Man.” After all it’s a classic.

But as far as newer movies, nothing has come close to “An American Werewolf in London”, “The Howling” (the original, not the slew of hideous sequels), and the lesser seen “Dog Soldiers.” Even “Underworld”, with its ‘vampire vs. werewolf’ storyline was much better than I originally expected. It was a little too slick, but the makeup effects were terrific.

So it came as a great surprise to find that “Cursed”, while not necessarily as great as the previously mentioned films, was actually a pretty darn good werewolf movie. The first thing that it had going for it was having the GREAT Rick Baker at the helm of the makeup special effects team, which also boasted the equally GREAT Greg Nicotero of KNB effects. Anytime you have either of these guys involved in a movie, you’re guaranteed to see some awesome special effects. But having them BOTH is like a dream come true. “Cursed” does use a lot of CGI effects, but they only overshadowed the makeup work in a couple of scenes. For the most part, they were relegated to some of the full body shots and transformations, the rest of the time they used traditional makeup effects.

Where I was really worried the film would fail was in it’s plotting, but to tell you the truth, the storyline worked for me just fine. “Cursed” had a hip feel to it, complete with all the jokes you would expect from a Kevin Williamson screenplay, but when it was time for the scares to kick in, they did quite nicely. I also had to hand it to Williamson as far as keeping the audience guessing as to the identities of some of the werewolves. There were no unnecessary red herrings thrown in, and everything for the most part, made sense.

Dimension is chilling us this week with two versions of the film on DVD. The first is the theatrical version while the other is touted as being ‘Unrated.’ I only had a chance to watch the ‘Unrated’ DVD, so not having seen it in theatres; I really can’t say what was added. I can tell you that there are quite a few really great features, mostly focusing on the special effects. We hear a lot from Nicotero and KNB studios and that alone makes the DVD worth having. If you’re not familiar with KNB, you should be, they are far from just being a monster factory, as they do a lot of work in big budget mainstream films as well. I still remember when I was shocked to learn they had created some of the mechanical buffaloes used during the hunt in “Dances with Wolves.”

Fans of the more traditional style horror films might not like the ‘hip’ style of “Cursed”, but I had a howling good time watching it…

Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring: Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, Jesse Eisenberg, Judy Greer, Scott Baio, Milo Ventimiglia, Shannon Elizabeth, Mya
Extras: Behind the Fangs: The Making of Cursed, The Cursed Effects, Creature Editing 101, Becoming a Werewolf, Selected Scenes with Commentary by Special Effects Makeup Supervisor Greg Nicotero and Actor Derek Mears
Specifications: Widescreen (2.40:1) Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Dimension
Release Date: 6/21/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Cursed a B.