Werewolf Week: Cursed

Well hello there and welcome to Day 5 of Werewolf Week and I am told by a reliable source (my Mom) that the last day's film will leave me reeling (film pun) from disappointment.  But, but but... it's a Wes Craven flick and we all know those are brilliant!  Well... except The Last House on the Left. Yeah, that was pretty painful.  Oh and The Hills Have Eyes II but he was under contract for that... oh wait, I hated Shocker as well.  Hmm, come to think of it I was not a fan of Vampire in Brooklyn.  Oh dear, this may suck more than a black hole.  Well let's see a gaggle of youngsters contend with lycanthropes and see if they are not one-dimensional.  Oh crap, Kevin Williamson is writing this as well.   This is Cursed.

Whatevs!!!

Kyle: Whoa, hey Ellie.
Kyle: Hey, '70s retro week is spoiling up. Do we want Keith Partridge or Marica Brady?
Ellie: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!





Suffering the evils of being neutered from its R rating and into a PG-13 to get more butts into the theater our story begins thus, in Los Angeles (Haven of all werewolves apparently)  two friends Jenny Tate (R& B artist Mya of In Too Deep, Haunted, Chicago, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, Shall We Dance, The Heart Specialist and Cover)  and Becky Morton (Shannon Elizabeth of American Pie, American Pie 2, Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back, Thir13en Ghosts and Catch a Christmas Star) at what looks like Santa Monica pier to get their fortune told about a boy.  No, not whether the movie About a Boy will be any good because it was.  Zela (Portia de Rossi of New York Daze, Scream 2, Girl, Ally McBeal, The Glow and I Witness) warns them of impeding danger and a terrible fate awaits them both.  Annoyed at this information the two girls scoff, snark and take off. Becky gets behind the wheel and is hell bent for leather when she realizes that Jenny isn't with her.

Meanwhile Ellie (Christina Ricci of The Addams Family, Casper, That Darn Cat, Buffalo '66, 200 Cigarettes, Sleepy Hollow and All Over the Guy) drives down to the same pier to pick up her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg of The Village, The Education of Charlie Banks, Zombieland, Camp Hell, 30 Minutes or Less and Now You See Me) and end up hitting an animal as well as another car.  

 Seeing the car is almost off Muholland Drive and about to be Muholland Falls, Ellie tries to save Beck when she is dragged out of the car and ripped asunder by a creature or creatures unknown and both Ellie and Jimmy have claw marks on them, lucky to be alive.   The police interview them both and their brilliant deduction was it was a cougar attack.  Yet not booze or risque panties on the scene.  Oh, wrong cougar.

Cops are persistent on ticketing!!

 Jimmy refuses to believe it was a large cat but actually some sort of wolf and starts researching about wolves in California.  Yes, they are  abundant in Cali but not normally predators towards humans.    Ellie starts feeling different, almost feral in someways she cannot describe and darn near ravages her boyfriend Jake (Joshua Jackson of Dawson's Creek, Urban Legends, Americano, Bobby, Battle in Seattle, One Week and Fringe) and Jenny apparently did not get vaped as we thought or it was eluded to but dies after an awkward moment at a party when she hits on Jake in front of Ellie.  

Ellie and Jimmy both notice the tendencies in themselves and Jimmy's hand is burned by a silver cake server.  Their dog attacks Jimmy, tasting his blood and becoming a were-creature of his own tearing around the neighborhood.    Who cursed them?  How can they end it?  What of Timmy stuck in the well?

Okay, and now the trivia, facts and critiques of the movie.

Because of the PG-13 edit, most of the story is a bit baffling and because the Weinsteins wanted more rumps in seats and the CGI seems incoherent in the transformations.   I noticed the size of said werewolf and was amused to find horror character actor Derek Mears as the creature.  Oh and less we forget the cameos of Craig Kilborn, Lance Bass, Bowling for Soup and Scott Baio?    Why was this needed?   One could argue to round out the story and surprise the audience but that one would be drug out in the street and beaten to death with a clown hammer.

 This production got stalled due to a re-write so cast member that Craven had worked with before got cut from the project.  Several of the filmed scenes due to the re-writes had to be scrapped as well.
  
The high school used as their set is Torrance High oddly enough used for as "West Beverly High" for Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sunnydale High for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Man that district is brutal.

Kevin Williamson has just made the Howling with Scream formula turning Joshua Jackson into Skeet Ulrich's character, the dependable pretty that turns out to be a monster and Ricci is playing Neve Campbell's character trying to defend herself and those she cares for.  So yeah, methinks his muse is on permanent hiatus.

On a side note it was shown that Ellie (Ricci) worked as crew for the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn but by the time the film was released in February 2005, Kilborn had left the show and Craig Ferguson picked up the spot and he and Jeff have dominated the wee hours since!!!

Phew, I smell a bad script!