well folks,
a new Wes Craven film will debut soon. Cursed starring the ever-interesting Chrisitina Ricci. From what i understand its a werewolf movie.
any takers?
Are you "Cursed"?
Are you "Cursed"?
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
Seen the previews for it recently. Looks like it will be good. Course I'm one of those who dont need plot or even decent acting to watch a movie and enjoy it. Oh and it will have Christina Ricci so thats worth watching anyways.
Maraudar
Maraudar
Blade, fire, pistol or stake it matters not.. Even the undead can become true dead.
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Drinnik Shoehorn
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 1794
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:28 pm
- Location: Tiptree, Home of Jam
wow. read the article. this would make a great plot for a side-trek adventure or an entire campaign.Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:I'm not cursed, but the city I live in is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 311611.stm
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
a review i found on Fangoria.com. as i havent seen the movie yet, this eview would discourage me. any dissenting voices plesae chime in and convince me otherwise.
CURSED
Reviewed by MICHAEL GINGOLD
Can a movie be dated the moment it’s released? That’s a question begged by CURSED, and not just because it employs a doom-predicting fortune teller character and asks the audience to take her at face value. The film utilizes the same smart-alecky, ironic tone as director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson’s SCREAM franchise, an approach that feels way past its prime; indeed, it falls so flat here that it almost makes one wonder how it worked so well the first time around.
Before I go further, I should note that since Dimension didn’t provide any critics’ screenings of the PG-13-rated release version, this review is based on an advance showing of the R-rated cut (fully completed, with titles, FX and music) that the Fango staff attended. I’d feel a little bad about this if it weren’t for the fact that about 95 percent of the attendees at that preview were general-audience people, clearly intended to spread word of mouth on the movie. Some of the R version’s gore was pretty extreme, so it can only be speculated how the softened versions of these scenes will play; what can be said is that showing a packed house the uncut edition, in the service of building buzz for a movie the studio already intended to send to theaters in expurgated form, is a kind of duplicity more distressing than anything in CURSED itself.
In one way, trimming CURSED for younger-audience access actually makes sense, since the only people likely to appreciate it are 12-year-olds who have never seen a werewolf movie before. It’s rather remarkable that a film made in this day and age, by talented people who have demonstrated a genre-subverting skill in the past, could possess no new ideas about lycanthropy. CURSED touches on the monstrous-empowerment themes of THE HOWLING and GINGER SNAPS (any 10 minutes of which wipe the floor with this movie), borrows bits from AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and references the original WOLF MAN in a few onscreen props, yet its own approach to the subject feels uncommitted and half-hearted—no doubt a symptom of the movie’s famously troubled production history.
The big question surrounding the experience of watching CURSED, in fact, is how uneven it feels given all the reshooting it underwent. The answer is that it doesn’t, at least not in the expected manner; since about 90 percent of the movie was scripted and filmed all over again after principal photography had nearly been completed, mismatching footage isn’t really an issue. But the finished product suggests that Williamson wrote his new screenplay in a big hurry; it plays like a first draft, with story concepts only partway developed and an excess of repetitive, explanatory dialogue. And it’s abundantly clear that Craven’s heart just wasn’t in the project once he was forced to do it a second time; there are a couple of nice stylistic flourishes, but for the most part there’s the sense that he was just rolling film to get it over with. CURSED has plenty of polished surfaces, but it never gets under the skin—of its characters or the viewer.
Oh yes, the plot: Siblings Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are driving through the Hollywood hills when they run into something large and hairy, causing an accident before the large, hairy thing winds up wounding both Ellie and Jimmy. (I KNOW WHO YOU BIT LAST SUMMER?) The "curse" begins to affect the two in the expected ways: They develop a taste for raw meat, Ellie has predatory nightmares and acquires a newfound sexuality and Jimmy, a target of bullies at his high school, kicks the ass of jock Bo (Milo Ventimiglia) in a wrestling match. (There is a funny payoff to Bo’s character, though the idea isn’t taken as far, dramatically or metaphorically, as it could have been.)
Meanwhile, the likes of Shannon Elizabeth, Mya, Craig Kilborn and Scott Baio turn up as token celebrity victims and/or pop-culture touchstones, and a large percentage of the supporting cast are set up as potential suspects. The resolution of the whoisit borrows a page from SCREAM, while at the climax, the movie all but forgets that it’s about werewolves. The villain chooses to stay human rather than turn lupine to attack, while Ellie and Jimmy apparently lose the strength they’d gained from the "curse," yet still prefer to use fisticuffs or jump on their attacker’s back even when a monster-killing weapon is at close hand.
Much was made of Rick Baker’s involvement in the initial monster designs, which KNB EFX significantly retooled for the final movie—yet for all their work, the result is a pretty basic, albeit well-executed, big shaggy upright-walking critter with a ferocious wolf’s head. The gore FX are more than up to snuff—not like anyone will get a good look at them, at least perhaps until the DVD—but the transformations are presented through CGI that will only remind fans of this subgenre how much better such scenes look when done with animatronics. And that’s symptomatic of CURSED as a whole, a movie that celebrates slickness instead of the visceral, that finds a one-time maverick filmmaker submerged in a project beholden to commercial concerns. By the end, when the werewolf flips the bird at a group of pursuers, genre diehards in the audience might find themselves taking the gesture personally.
CURSED
Reviewed by MICHAEL GINGOLD
Can a movie be dated the moment it’s released? That’s a question begged by CURSED, and not just because it employs a doom-predicting fortune teller character and asks the audience to take her at face value. The film utilizes the same smart-alecky, ironic tone as director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson’s SCREAM franchise, an approach that feels way past its prime; indeed, it falls so flat here that it almost makes one wonder how it worked so well the first time around.
Before I go further, I should note that since Dimension didn’t provide any critics’ screenings of the PG-13-rated release version, this review is based on an advance showing of the R-rated cut (fully completed, with titles, FX and music) that the Fango staff attended. I’d feel a little bad about this if it weren’t for the fact that about 95 percent of the attendees at that preview were general-audience people, clearly intended to spread word of mouth on the movie. Some of the R version’s gore was pretty extreme, so it can only be speculated how the softened versions of these scenes will play; what can be said is that showing a packed house the uncut edition, in the service of building buzz for a movie the studio already intended to send to theaters in expurgated form, is a kind of duplicity more distressing than anything in CURSED itself.
In one way, trimming CURSED for younger-audience access actually makes sense, since the only people likely to appreciate it are 12-year-olds who have never seen a werewolf movie before. It’s rather remarkable that a film made in this day and age, by talented people who have demonstrated a genre-subverting skill in the past, could possess no new ideas about lycanthropy. CURSED touches on the monstrous-empowerment themes of THE HOWLING and GINGER SNAPS (any 10 minutes of which wipe the floor with this movie), borrows bits from AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and references the original WOLF MAN in a few onscreen props, yet its own approach to the subject feels uncommitted and half-hearted—no doubt a symptom of the movie’s famously troubled production history.
The big question surrounding the experience of watching CURSED, in fact, is how uneven it feels given all the reshooting it underwent. The answer is that it doesn’t, at least not in the expected manner; since about 90 percent of the movie was scripted and filmed all over again after principal photography had nearly been completed, mismatching footage isn’t really an issue. But the finished product suggests that Williamson wrote his new screenplay in a big hurry; it plays like a first draft, with story concepts only partway developed and an excess of repetitive, explanatory dialogue. And it’s abundantly clear that Craven’s heart just wasn’t in the project once he was forced to do it a second time; there are a couple of nice stylistic flourishes, but for the most part there’s the sense that he was just rolling film to get it over with. CURSED has plenty of polished surfaces, but it never gets under the skin—of its characters or the viewer.
Oh yes, the plot: Siblings Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are driving through the Hollywood hills when they run into something large and hairy, causing an accident before the large, hairy thing winds up wounding both Ellie and Jimmy. (I KNOW WHO YOU BIT LAST SUMMER?) The "curse" begins to affect the two in the expected ways: They develop a taste for raw meat, Ellie has predatory nightmares and acquires a newfound sexuality and Jimmy, a target of bullies at his high school, kicks the ass of jock Bo (Milo Ventimiglia) in a wrestling match. (There is a funny payoff to Bo’s character, though the idea isn’t taken as far, dramatically or metaphorically, as it could have been.)
Meanwhile, the likes of Shannon Elizabeth, Mya, Craig Kilborn and Scott Baio turn up as token celebrity victims and/or pop-culture touchstones, and a large percentage of the supporting cast are set up as potential suspects. The resolution of the whoisit borrows a page from SCREAM, while at the climax, the movie all but forgets that it’s about werewolves. The villain chooses to stay human rather than turn lupine to attack, while Ellie and Jimmy apparently lose the strength they’d gained from the "curse," yet still prefer to use fisticuffs or jump on their attacker’s back even when a monster-killing weapon is at close hand.
Much was made of Rick Baker’s involvement in the initial monster designs, which KNB EFX significantly retooled for the final movie—yet for all their work, the result is a pretty basic, albeit well-executed, big shaggy upright-walking critter with a ferocious wolf’s head. The gore FX are more than up to snuff—not like anyone will get a good look at them, at least perhaps until the DVD—but the transformations are presented through CGI that will only remind fans of this subgenre how much better such scenes look when done with animatronics. And that’s symptomatic of CURSED as a whole, a movie that celebrates slickness instead of the visceral, that finds a one-time maverick filmmaker submerged in a project beholden to commercial concerns. By the end, when the werewolf flips the bird at a group of pursuers, genre diehards in the audience might find themselves taking the gesture personally.
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
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Shadowsworn
- Agent of the Fraternity
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2003 11:18 am
- Location: Toronto
- Contact:
Interesting. Its like something out of an old gothic novel.Shoon VII wrote:wow. read the article. this would make a great plot for a side-trek adventure or an entire campaign.Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:I'm not cursed, but the city I live in is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 311611.stm
"Death is the great equalizer"
Proof that the Grim Reaper is a communist.
Proof that the Grim Reaper is a communist.
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Malus Black
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 301
- Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2003 2:43 am
- Location: Norway
It gets better. Apparently, Uri Geller intends to exorcise the stone, read here for the details.Shadowsworn wrote:Interesting. Its like something out of an old gothic novel.Shoon VII wrote:wow. read the article. this would make a great plot for a side-trek adventure or an entire campaign.Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:I'm not cursed, but the city I live in is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 311611.stm
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream
-Edgar Allan Poe
Is but a dream within a dream
-Edgar Allan Poe
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Malus Black
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 301
- Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2003 2:43 am
- Location: Norway
This is beginning to sound like a very good Masque adventure. Think of it. You've got a cursed artifact and a town desperate to rid themselves of the curse, prophecies and whatnot, and a psychic who wants to remove the curse (perhaps he's even a fraud who's just interested in how much he can sell the stone for) and in doing so disturbs things man was not meant to know of. Perhaps the ghosts of those who were claimed by the curse, or perhaps whatever it was that made the stone. Perhaps the stone is not cursed at all, but a seal to imprison something ancient and evil, only a bit of it leaks out, leading to the belief in the curse. Imagine what would happen if the stone was removed or exorcised.
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream
-Edgar Allan Poe
Is but a dream within a dream
-Edgar Allan Poe
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Cole Deschain
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 3:07 pm
- Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
i guess this is one of the reasons i raised the issue in the first place. i am more inclined to believe a bad review than a good one. i am hoping that someone will come to the defense of Cursed.Cole Deschain wrote:Saw it. Hated it.
Bunch'a schticky gimmicks strung around a transparent plot and highly predictable.
while there are many "horror" movies coming out lately, i havent alwyas found them to be satisfying. i have yet to see Ginder Snaps (i havent heard one bad thing about it) and the last werewolf flick i saw was Dog Soldiers and Underworld (if you can put it into that category).
is it really that difficult to make a good werewolf movie. are the two best always going to be American Werewolf in London anf The Howling?
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
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Gemathustra
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 578
- Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 11:31 pm
- Location: The Cleft of Dimensions
http://calypso-blue.com/werewolf
See what these nice people are up to...
See what these nice people are up to...
"Arrogant mortal! You are in my world now and you will never leave this attic alive! I will destroy you, and then I will possess she whom you love the most. And there is not a single thing in the world you can do to stop me!"
*poke*
"OW!"
-Dracula
*poke*
"OW!"
-Dracula
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Dr Bloodworth
- Criminal Mastermind
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 9:38 pm
- Location: Lancaster, PA
You could make it into the Black Seal from "The Novel of the Black Seal" by Arthur Machen. AKA the Ixaxar or Sixtystone. Keep it in the town and get PO'd "little people"...Malus Black wrote:This is beginning to sound like a very good Masque adventure. Think of it. You've got a cursed artifact and a town desperate to rid themselves of the curse, prophecies and whatnot, and a psychic who wants to remove the curse (perhaps he's even a fraud who's just interested in how much he can sell the stone for) and in doing so disturbs things man was not meant to know of. Perhaps the ghosts of those who were claimed by the curse, or perhaps whatever it was that made the stone. Perhaps the stone is not cursed at all, but a seal to imprison something ancient and evil, only a bit of it leaks out, leading to the belief in the curse. Imagine what would happen if the stone was removed or exorcised.
Better to betray the world, than for the world to betray me.
wow. i'm not a werewolf-fan by any stretch compared to these folksGemathustra wrote:http://calypso-blue.com/werewolf
See what these nice people are up to...
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.