Cursed

Alternate titles : None

Tagline : "Beware the full moon"

Wes Craven re-teamed up with scriptwriter Kevin Williamson for this latest slant on the werewolf genre, which Dimension films hoped would do for Wolf man movies what "Scream" did for slashers. Unfortunately, the finished result proved to be anything but the rollercoaster of success they had hoped for.

Set in the suburbs of LA, Ellie (Christina Ricci) and her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are involved in a car crash on a lonely mountain road. As they check to see if the other driver is OK, they are suddenly attacked by a huge wolf-like creature that burst out of the scrub.

Passing the incident off as a wild animal attack and with the rescue services on the scene, the two try and put the events of the evening behind them. But when the 2 siblings begin to notice strange changes in each others behaviour, they realise this was no ordinary wolf that bit them. Having done some research on the werewolf legends, Jimmy is convinced the only way to undo the changes is to find and kill the creature that bit them (hang on, I thought that was vampires, not werewolves?).

This proves problematic as they're not entirely sure who the original wolf could be, however it soon becomes obvious the culprit could be someone a lot closer than they thought. Whilst the film may have had a lot of promise, it unfortunately offers nothing new to the genre and proves to be little more than a rip off of all the other cult werewolf films of this ilk, which includes scenes lifted directly from "American Werewolf in London", "Ginger Snaps" and even "Teen Wolf".

Some of the films problems may have been due to the constant messing around with the script, which was being constantly rewritten during filming. That's not to say the films a complete waste of time, but I tend to find it falls into the rent as opposed to buy category. As a parting thought, what was Scott (Happy Days, Bugsy Malone) Baio doing in this???

Overall Marks : 3.5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag lines "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", "Have you ever felt like your not Human anymore?", "The Evolution of the Species".
• The films budget was $35,000,000.
• The film suffered numerous production problems, which resulted in half the film being reshot. Originally, Ellie and Jimmy were strangers who get involved in a car crash with a third person named Vince, played by Skeet Ulrich, who subsequently gets attacked by a werewolf. However, when the script was changed to focus on the Ellie and Jimmy, they decided to make them brother and sister. Skeet Ulrich wasn't happy with his new character, so left the production and was replaced by Joshua Jackson. The name was then changed from Vince to Jake.
• The role of Jenny was originally played by Mandy Moore, but she was unable to return for reshoots after the script changes, so was replaced by singer Mya.
• Robert Forster, Heather Langenkamp and Corey Feldman originally had roles in the film, along with Scott Foley, Omar Epps and Illeana Douglas, but their scenes were cut when the film was re-written and re-shot.
• The original ending took place in a Wax Museum, but in the re-written version it was changed to a nightclub. In order to minimise reshoots they made it a movie themed club so they could utilise the same sets.
• The finished cut of the film was originally given an "R" rating by the US censors board (meaning under 17's can see it if accompanied by an adult), however the studio wanted a lower rating and so much of the gore was cut in order to get a PG-13.
• The scene shown during Ellie's dream sequence was actually from a scene from the original version of the film, which is why it appears to have no relevance to the rest of the plot.
• The UK version is the cut US PG-13 version, the US unrated DVD is actually the uncut R rated version. The Canadian release was of the uncut US R rated version.

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