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Cursed (2005)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
3/22
3/22:
The Master of Suck is back at it again.
This time, it's Cursed, a gigantic box-office failure, that almost signals the end of Wes Craven's directorial career. He
sure made lots of stinkers in his lifetime. Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, and Jesse Eisenberg had done better in others, but Wes
couldn't manage to get a decent performance out of them?
I didn't notice this before, but it's impossible to look past Christina Ricci's huge forehead which is prominently
featured in every scene. What the heck happened? I checked out several movies from the past, and it was never the case. The
title Cursed seems about right as if Christina Ricci has a white space helmet on. Regardless, I'm surprised that
she was cast, figuring her to be better than this mainstream shit.
The seven-time Oscar winner Rick Baker was asked to do the makeup effects for what's essentially another werewolf film. Hmm,
is this genre already old, especially in the 21st century? He did it before for An American Werewolf in London (first
ever Oscar win in this category) and Wolf. Speaking of the latter, the plot is somewhat similar only
that the genders are reversed: Christina Ricci for Jack Nicholson, Jesse Eisenberg for Michelle Pfeiffer, and Judy
Greer for James Spader.
Back to Rick Baker, what I saw looks like his expertise wasn't needed after all. It's been mostly CGI. Maybe he
focused more on the wax figures like the Wolf Man in the mold of James Spader, Cher, and Whoopi, among the others. As a matter
of fact, he was fired by the Weinsteins who ironically proclaimed the film would "reinvent the werewolf
genre." Uh, right. Ultimately, Baker's stuff was thrown out of the window which were replaced with CGI.
Retiring in 2015, Rick Baker said: "First of all, the CG stuff definitely took away the animatronics part of what I do. It's
also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like
to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to
get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don't think I will have a huge working studio anymore."
Appropriately titled for going through many reshoots, rewrites, and recasts for five years while the budget ballooned from
$35 million to $100 million, Cursed sucks. It's too fast-paced, making it hard for me to focus on anything. Craig
Kilborn shows up, but who the hell is that? Is he supposed to be famous or what? The same can be said for Scott Baio who's a
total has-been.
There's a lot of fluff, thanks to the awful special effects. It's never enjoyable for a minute. At the same time, I
was thinking that Joel Schumacher could do a lot better with this. Written by Kevin Williamson, the word "hip" is never felt
like how it did in Scream nor is "horror" for that matter. The gay subplot is weird, but I can see Bo and Jimmy
producing a beautiful litter of puppies at the end.
All in all, it's time for the Master of Suck to stop making movies and just go away very quietly.