Cursed (2005 American)

Title - Cursed
Language - English
Genre - Horror, werewolf

On their way home Ellie and her brother Jimmy hit an animal in the road causing them to crash in to another car which they knock off the road.  Whilst they are trying to help the other driver they are attacked by the animal.  Ellie and Jimmy get away but, over the next few they begin to realise that they are changing into something else.  The race is on to find out who the werewolf who attacked them is and to kill them to stop the change and the killing.

Cursed is a Werewolf film directed by Wes Craven and it deliberately plays along the lines of a standard werewolf film, for a bit. As with a lot of Wes Craven's films it has a dark sense of humor and a sense that it doesn't take itself totally serious.  The standard setup is the same as a lot of werewolf films, the main character, or in this case two of the main characters get bitten by a werewolf and then they have to deal with the consequences.  The one advantage of having two victims of the wolf attack is that we are shown two ways of dealing with the change.  First up there is Jimmy, the younger of the siblings who is slightly nerdy and often accused of being gay, which he isn’t.  It doesn't help that he is interested in Jenny the school jocks (Bo) girlfriend.  As in other werewolf/vampire films of this type Jimmy has a convenient collection of werewolf comics to help in his research into what is happening to him and, of course no one believes him, even Ellie to begin with.  Jimmy's story line takes a 'Teen Wolf' approach to coping with the wolf curse, pushed by Bo's bullying he ends up at tryouts for the wrestling team where he shows that he is stronger and more athletic than the rest, although unlike Teen Wolf he does not need to turn into the wolf to do so.    

Ellie, on the other hand has trouble believing that they are cursed, to begin with she refused to believe that the original attack was by a werewolf but as time moves on she can’t deny the changes that are happening to her.

There are parts of Cursed that seem to use traditional vampire law instead of the recognised werewolf law for instance silver will hurt a wolf but not necessarily kill it.  To kill the wolf you only need to separate the brain form the body.

To end their curse Ellie and Jimmy find they have to kill the wolf who turned them but who is it.

Cursed is a good film, it does not take itself too seriously and has a good story.  Most werewolf films have a victim coping with the curse and not necessarily trying to end it or have a pack of wolves terrorizing a community/group of people but Cursed we have the victims trying to end the curse without doing too much damage themselves and this works well as there are more there is more than one wolf. 

We also have Christina Ricci gothing up and looking cute so that’s always a bonus.

Cursed (Japanese 2004)

Title - Cursed
Language - Japanese
Genre - Horror, J horror, ghost

Ryoko has been sent, instead of her boss to help the transition of a small convenience store that is joining the ranks a of corporate chain store but almost as soon as she arrives she begins to think that something is wrong.  Nao, the daytime casher seems normal enough but when the store managers appear, accusing her of being late for the appointment Ryoko is confused, she’s convinced that she is there in plenty of time, the appointment is for two O'clock but when she checks it’s 4.30.  In the meeting with Mr & mrs Kitura, Ryoko is concerned by their reaction to the new of her boss’ accident, not only do they know that he has lost his legs but they seem very happy about it.

Whilst Ryoko is taking the shops inventory there are a few strange occurrences.  There is the one customer who stands reading the magazines, his face is totally covered by the hood of his parka jacket.  There are strange sounds coming from different rooms and eyes watching them, and crows flying into the windows as well as the owners strange behavior to contend with.

Outside of the store some of their customers are coming to grizzley ends.  

When the man in the Parka attacks Nao and then does something to Komori, the night shift cashier Ryoko and Nao know that they need to find out what is happening in the store, if they can stay sane and alive for long enough.

Cursed starts off as a good ghost film, it’s not too creepy but there is a bit of gore.  As it goes on it does get creepier, the Parka guy is an interesting character but possibly under used and this seems to be a bit of a recurring problem.  There are a number of deaths in the film and all of them are different, i understand that they are supposed to be the manifestation of the curse and they are supposed to be person/environment specific but each death seems to bring an unrelated character or event in just to kill off the person and then they are forgot.  This would have been ok if the murderers were connected or possessed but they are unconnected, swinging from normal people to ghosts & slashers all of whom  have no explanation.  Cursed should have either stuck to one or two killers (they could have used the Parka guy) or gone down the route of having events not people to do the killing in a similar style to the ‘Final Destination’ series.  Instead Cursed give the impression that it is trying fit too much in, it obviously knows what it is but it seems to want to try to please too many people.

Cursed also seems to be a bit  more ‘western’ that other J horrors I've seen.  It is definitely Japanese but there is definitely something different, the ‘slasher’ kill is more of a western style and when the woman in her apartment is about to be haunted is was expecting her to open the fridge and see a dog shouting ‘Zool’ and we do get a second ‘dimension’ to inside of the fridge before getting a ghost reminiscent of the ‘Ring’.

Over all Cursed is a good if somewhat confused film that tries to do too much and falls a little short of what it should be.  It does have gore and quite a good story line so give it watch.