CURSED (Unrated Version)

DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 99 minutes, Making Of featurette, Effects featurette, Editing featurette, Becoming A Werewolf featurette, audio commentary for selected scenes, and previews.

STUDIO: DIMENSION

RELEASE DATE: 6/21/2005

ANALYSIS: CURSED in a way was cursed from the start. Dimension launched the movie into production without a finished script. Then they stopped shooting to have the movie reworked. Months later, CURSED was shooting again this time with new scenes and some parts recast (actors for new characters). CURSED is a promising horror movie for the first hour before the inane third act derails this werewolf movie and descends into Mystery Science Theater 3000 territory. The last third of the movie contains scenes so bad that they're funny. The CGI werewolf is the Jar Jar Binks of werewolves. On the plus side, Christina Ricci does look sexy in this one. CURSED is filled with some beautiful women except for that skinny blond publicist (I'm joking a bit).   Also be on the look out for roles by celebs playing themselves.

Ricci plays Ellie who works for the Craig Kilborn show. One night, she and her brother, Jimmy, get in a car accident on Mulholland Drive after an animal hits their winshield. Their car collides with another one.  They try to free the woman (Shannon Elizabeth) from the other car. then a werewolf shows up and grabs the woman. The brother tries to grab onto her and he is dragged along with Ellie. Brother and sister get bitten by the werewolf and strange things start to happen to them. People pay more attention to Ellie as her sexual allure goes up a notch.

Too bad that Dimension couldn't leave well enough alone and have Craven (and Williamson) work out the movie before it began production.  The original plot dealt with three strangers who are brought tgether after a car accident, but the reworked version has two characters becoming estranged siblings.  Then Skeet Ulrich drops out because he doesn't like the changes to his character.  Many cast members were cut when CURSED's production was stalled to be rewritten and have reshoots.  Hopefully a Special Edition DVD will shed some light on what CURSED could have been.

VIDEO: 2.40:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)

Image quailty is fine. No complaints with teh colors, skin tones, or blacks.

AUDIO: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 2.0

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Dialogue is clear and understandable. Music and sound effects are OK.

SPECIAL FEATURES: The best thing among the extras are the previews. We are bombarded by a bunch of lame featurettes you can skip over. BEHING TEH FANGS: THE MAKING OF CURSED is a fluff piece which does feature some behind-the-scenes footage and the hotness of Christina Ricci. Also I think there are glimpses of some unseen footage cut after reshoots went on. THE CURSED EFFECTS is all about the Werewolf effects from creature Make-Up to CGI werewolves. Test footage of one of the actors in a partial werewolf make-up is included. CREATURE EDITING 101 is a dull featurette on the editing of CURSED and what stuff was cut for a PG-13 rating. BECOMING A WEREWOLF is another inane featurette. Rounding out the special features is audio commentary (for four scenes) by Makeup Supervisor Greg Nicotero and Actor Derek Mears (the guy who was in the werewolf suit). Previews included on the DVD are for SIN CITY, HOSTAGE, DRACULA III, and PROZAC NATION.

FINAL ANALYSIS: If you must watch CURSED, rent it and don't buy it. Hopefully, a Special Edition release will include deleted scenes and what the story of the production.

this DVD Review is (c)6-17-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia