Plot: What’s it about?
The urban landscape of Los Angeles seems too dense, too populated to be home to a mythical beast, but a sinister presence lurks in the shadows. As Ellie (Christina Ricci) and her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) soon discover, the evil loose in Los Angeles is a nightmare come to life. As the two drive down Mulholland Drive, the car strikes a large animal of sorts. The impact causes Ellie to lose control of the car and they smash into another vehicle. The other car is sent over a hilldside, crashing hard to the ground below and the two quickly race down to help out whoever was inside. Instead of helping someone else, the two find themselves attacked by a creature of some kind, which Jimmy believes to be a werewolf. Soon after, Ellie and Jimmy notice changes and they realize what has happened. Can the two manage to find the werewolf and restore their nomal lives, or are they doomed to live as werewolves?
This movie was given an ounce of promotion, which helped contribute to a lackluster box office turnout, which is kind of a surprise. Wes Craven in the director’s chair and Kevin Williamson as the writer, the pair that lit up the box office with the Scream movies. A cast that includes Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, Shannon Elizabeth, Mya, and even Scott Baio. Even with all that name power, Cursed is a movie that perhaps even most devoted horror fans have never heard of. Dimension left this out to die a slow death, with a minimal promotional tour and no real support whatsoever. Is Cursed such a rotten picture that Dimension was right to abandon it, or did the flick deserve a better treatment? As it turns out, the movie isn’t good, but this is due to studio interference and all sorts of production mishaps. Dimension hacked the movie multiple times, demanded re-writes, new cast members, and in the end, the chaos results in a mediocre movie. Could Cursed be a good movie? Yes, but Dimension chose to make sure it sank like a brick. The Unrated Version adds in only a couple of minutes and while a little extra gore is nice, the additions aren’t substantial.
Video: How does it look?
Cursed is presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen. The movie might be bad, but Dimension’s visual treatment is very good, much better than most of the quick to video releases out there. There is a slight bit of grain on the print, but aside from that, the materials look good, despite the much talked about production mishaps involved. I found the colors to be bold and more than solid, though a few scenes show some overly rich hues, which isn’t a huge deal, but one worth mentioning here. The black levels remain sharp and well balanced, while detail is good too, even in the darker sequences. Not a top level visual effort by any means, but for a quick to video horror flick, it ain’t bad at all.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio here could have been atmospheric and enhanced the eerie texture we expect from a horror movie, but instead, it comes off as bland and basic. The surrounds aren’t silent at all times with this mix, but you won’t notice them too often and that sucks, as this kind of material could use some creepy surround presence. All the little subtle touches and spooky noises should have been well mixed to add to the atmosphere, but that didn’t happen. The music is decent enough and the dialogue is clean, but I still found this soundtrack to be a disappointment. This disc also includes a French language track, as well as subtitles in English and Spanish, should you need those.
Supplements: What are the extras?
A host of featurettes are included here, but in typical Dimension fashion, none run over ten minutes and few contain any worthwhile content. The featurettes cover cast interviews, special effects footage, a discussion on the editing process, and of course, the werewolf itself. But as I said, none run even ten minutes, so there’s no time to go in depth. A few scenes have audio comments from star Derek Mears and special effects guru Greg Nicotero, but this is not a full length session. Not much to talk about, mostly Nicotero pointing out the computer effects and a few behind the scenes anecdotes.
