Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Cursed Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 11, 2022

It's difficult to think of a movie made this millennium which underwent as many changes as Cursed (2005). Accounts vary when principal photography began but it seems to have occurred between March and August of 2003. Omar Epps, Corey Feldman, Mandy Moore, and Skeet Ulrich are among at least some of the actors whose footage landed on the cutting room floor. (Film historian Kevin Lyons says on his website, The EOFFTV Review, that Heather Langenkamp was also one of the original cast members.) After the first set of shoots initially wrapped, production shut down indefinitely for a year until new actors were brought in for re-shoots. A new ending was written. Lyons has chronicled that producer Bob Weinstein was unhappy with the first cut and essentially took over. Weinstein trimmed the gore substantially so the picture could meet a "PG-13" rating and be much more box-office friendly. Changes were so innumerable that editor Patrick Lussier stated in a recent interview on this disc that only twelve minutes of the original eighty-five minute material survived the final finished film. Dimension Films clearly wanted to capitalize on the success that director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson enjoyed with the first two Scream films. However, they probably feared a critical mauling so much that they didn't screen Cursed for critics. Steve Persall of the Tampa Bay Times got to see it a few days before the February 25, 2005 wide release. Persall wrote in his print review that Dimension postponed a sneak preview twice before eventually cancelling it. Nearly two years after production started, Dimension released a 97-minute cut into theaters.

Siblings.

Ellie (Christina Ricci) is a production assistant and rising producer on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. (The latter was already belated since Kilborn left the show a year before Cursed's theatrical release.) Ellie's suggestions for guests as well as her creative ideas are opposed by Joanie (Judy Greer), a back-stabbing publicist. Joanie also competes with Ellie over Jake Taylor (Joshua Jackson), a designer who's opening Tinsel Hollywood, a nightclub which also features a wax museum with horror movie characters. Jake has his business priorities and he's not ready to commit to Ellie. Jimmy Myers (Jesse Eisenberg), a high school student who's Ellie's geeky younger brother, has his eyes set on Brooke Mueller (Kristina Anapau) but she's doesn't even know he sits behind her in their classes. It doesn't help that Bo (Milo Ventimiglia), Brooke's boyfriend, is a real douche-bag who bullies Jimmy. Late one evening while Ellie and Jimmy are driving on Mulholland Drive, an oversized wolf jumps and careens off the car's windshield. Their car crashes into Becky's (Shannon Elizabeth) vehicle, which tumbles into the woods. Becky is stuck upside down. When Jimmy and his sister try to pull her out, an animal bites Becky and takes them with her. Ellie and Jimmy are injured but survive. However, Ellie and Jimmy develop what appears to be a pentagram on each of their palms. Zela (Portia de Rossi), a gypsy fortune teller waiting in Kilborn's office, notices Ellie's hand and warns her she has the "marks of a beast." Ellie and Jimmy both have the signs and symptoms of a werewolf. Can they vanquish its curse?

I don't know if this was Wes Craven's intention but I particularly admire how bits of the werewolf's physique are only gradually revealed. The suspense sizzles when the beast chases Jenny (Mya) around a parking garage and entraps her inside an elevator. (The werewolf's claws scratching a car door remind me of Freddy doing the same with his knives across a chalkboard in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master [1988].) It's unfortunate that makeup effects genius Rick Baker didn't return for any of the re-shoots because neither werewolf used in the final film are as menacing compared to the werewolves he designed in the prior genre films. One part in the garage scene that doesn't work is when the werewolf leaps on top of cars like a grasshopper. Much later in the film, another werewolf has more girth in the middle but just doesn't look right. A scene where we see the metamorphosis into a full werewolf depicts a Gollum-like CGI creature that, when viewed today, doesn't blend in well with the sets and live action. Cursed has some great moments but overall, the scares come in short supply.

Cursed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory's two-disc Collector's Edition of Cursed has arrived with a slipcover. The first disc presents the original theatrical version and second disc contains the unrated version. Each cut has received a fresh 4K scan taken from the original camera negative. They're displayed in the film's original theatrical exhibition ratio of 2.40:1. This is a welcome release since Canadian-based Alliance and US-based Echo Bridge Home Entertainment each cropped the picture to 1.78:1 for their Blu-ray versions. (Echo Bridge's three Blu-ray editions of Cursed, all released in 2012, shares disc space with at least one other title.) Color saturation on Scream's transfer is outstanding without any bleeding. Black levels are deep. I didn't notice any crush. There are a few infinitesimal white specks. The opening amusement park scene may have tiny edge enhancement. But all in all, this is a pretty glorious remastered transfer. Each cut boasts an average video bitrate of 34000 kbps. Screenshots come from both versions.

Scream has provided twelve scenes on each disc.

Cursed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream Factory has supplied two lossless audio tracks on each disc: a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround mix (2067 kbps, 24-bit) and a downsampled DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (1583 kbps, 24-bit) on the unrated version; a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround mix (2098 kbps, 24-bit) on the theatrical cut. Bowling for Soup's performance of "Lil' Red Riding Hood" (heard on the diegetic sound track) delivers excellent acoustics and range. Spoken dialogue is crisp and audible, though pitch varies. Joshua Jackson sometimes whispers his lines. Horror film maestro Marco Beltrami wrote a lot of music for the various cuts of Cursed and his score has a solid balance between the front channels and rears. One of the best parts of the 5.1 tracks is that the satellite speakers deliver some of the most subtle sfx. Directionality is also very good.

Each cut contains optional English SDH.

Cursed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The three individual DVD editions of Cursed, released in 2005 and 2011, contained four featurettes and a selected-scene audio commentary. Echo Bridge's 2012 Blu-ray dropped the commentary. Scream Factory has ported all of them over and recorded two new interviews.

DISC ONE: THEATRICAL CUT (1:37:04, 1080p)

• NEW A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing – An Interview with Actor Derek Mears (13:57, 1080p) - Mears presents info on his stunts and martial arts background, a role he played in Wild Wild West (1999), and meeting Rick Baker, who introduced him to Wes Craven. (Mears shares some nice anecdotes about the latter.) He delves into the type of movements he needed to learn to become the werewolf in Cursed. He also discusses the challenge of playing the beast when the concept changed. Mears is the actor who very possibly worked on the film the longest. Mears sounds like he's staunchly opposed to studio intervention. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW A Movie That Lives Up to Its Title – An Interview with Editor Patrick Lussier (17:57, 1080p) - Lussier recounts meeting Craven in 1991 when they worked on the NBC series, Nightmare Cafe. He remembers getting the call from Dimension to work on Cursed and also Craven's reservations to direct the picture. Lussier describes the making of Cursed as a "hurricane of creative and financial insanity." He recollects re-cutting the film, a large part given to Judy Greer's character in a early cut, figures on the exit cards from a preview screening, the original ending, the rewrites, more re-shoots, and his reflections of Cursed today. In English, not subtitled.

• Behind the Fangs: The Making of CURSED (7:33, upconverted to 1080i) - a decent EPK featurette containing interview snippets with screenwriter/producer Kevin Williamson, actor Derek Mears, and makeup effects supervisor Greg Nictoero. Also interviewed are several cast members, including Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson, Scott Baio, Mya, Portia de Rossi, Michael Rosenbaum, and Judy Greer. Not surprisingly, Craven is not interviewed. Interviews are framed in 1.33:1, while clips from the film are shown in non-anamorphic 2.40:1. In English, not subtitled.

• The CURSED Effects (6:45, upconverted to 1080i) - Nicotero, Mears, and Greer appear on this extra. Nicotero goes into details about makeup tests and describes the differences between the digital werewolf and the "real" wolf. There's solid behind-the-scenes glimpses into the effects work. In English, not subtitled.

• Becoming a Werewolf (7:58, upconverted to 1080i) - Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed this old-school skit about how makeup artists Greg Nicotero and Jake Garber transform an actor into a werewolf. He places himself into the makeup chair. It's like a vintage making-of that Hollywood used to produce with a leading actor giving viewers a tour of a studio lot. It also shows Eisenberg and Nicotero reading up on werewolves in the library. The short comes with a surprise guest at the end. Presented in 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound (192 kbps). In English, not subtitled.

• Creature Editing 101 (5:32, 1080p) - Lussier appears in this featurette where he explains the key differences between Cursed's "PG-13" and "R"-rated versions. Clips from each version are shown for comparison. They're letterboxed in 2.40:1. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Theatrical Trailer (1:42, upscaled to 1080i) - This is more of a theatrical teaser trailer that Dimension/Miramax put out. It's presented in 1.78:1 16x9 widescreen, obviously cropped from the OAR of 2.40:1. There's only Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound (192 kbps). In English, not subtitled.

DISC TWO: UNRATED CUT (1:39:20, 1080p)

• Select Scenes with Audio Commentary by Special Effects Artist Greg Nicotero and Actor Derek Mears (32 min., upscaled to 1080i) - Four scenes are available to view with commentary: "Car Wreck" (6:11), "Parking Garage" (4:38), "Tinsel" (15:42), and "Final Fight" (4:58). Mears talks about what the stunts were like while donning the werewolf suit and Nicotero extrapolates on how he pulled off the visual stunts. The scenes use the MPEG-2 codec. There is no "Play All" option.

Cursed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In spite of many alterations made, both the theatrical and unrated versions of Cursed manage to deliver a reasonably coherent narrative experience. The stylistic differences between the two are most conspicuous in the dream sequence and climax, particularly the visual effects work. I wish that Rick Baker could have been paid to stick around to improve the creature effects. It's also too bad that Williamson underwrote the role given to Joshua Jackson, who delivers an uninspired performance. There is at least one work print of Cursed known to exist with 90 percent of the film complete (sans f/x and score). Hopefully, Arrow or another boutique label will get their hands on it and release a deluxe package like they did with The Exorcist III. Scream Factory's video and lossless audio presentations are top notch. Bonus materials duplicate the DVDs and BDs with two new interviews. Cursed is RECOMMENDED with qualifiers.