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I really enjoyed watching this movie in my teen years, it was funny, cheesy and doesn't take itself all that seriously which is the whole point in a horror/comedy. People that gave this movie a bad review obviously went into this expecting so much more, then were sorely disappointed. There were many cheesy horror/comedies during the 2000s, so this movie fits right in with the time, lol.

I went into "Cursed" with high expectations, I'll admit. But how could I resist the re-teaming of the "Scream" team, director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson? I should have known after re-shoots and delay upon delay of the film's release (It should have come out last November), that this would not be another masterpiece in the works. Though I tried to keep my hopes up, the results of this recombination are mixed at best.

Christina Ricci ("Monster") and Jessie Eisenberg ("Roger Dodger") star as siblings who are attacked by a mysterious animal in the Hollywood hills while trying to pull a woman from a wrecked car. Both are wounded by this animal and as the days go by, they begin to change. Eisenberg is most convincing as the younger brother who researches the animal that attacked them. He believes they were infected by a werewolf. The rest of the film chronicles their changes and quest to find the beast who infected them.

Aside from Ricci and Eisenberg the cast mainly consists of a smorgasbord of television actors, mostly from the WB. And I'm not sure that I'd call what they were doing acting. It seemed they mostly showed up and had a good time. Which can work, as long as the audience is enjoying it, too. However, I found myself groaning at much of the dialogue and wincing during emotional moments.

The film is slow to take off but does pick up the pace in the middle before falling off again towards the end. The computer graphics already look dated, and the werewolf makeup is most definitely sub par. A word to filmmakers everywhere, if you can't make a werewolf transformation look convincing, then don't show it at all. There's a lot to be said for implication.

Though there are several scenes where something pops up in the frame to make you jump in your seat, nothing haunts you as you leave the theater. There's no fear of bad dreams here.

Overall, the geniuses behind one of the classic fright films of the 90s (and possibly of all time) did not bring their best work into this decade. I hate to say it, but Wes Craven seems to be suffering from his own curse - the loss of fright.

For a smarter, more imaginative take on the werewolf theme, check out "Ginger Snaps" or "Dog Soldiers."

After five years without directing a film, I bought this DVD expecting a good return of Wes Craven to the genre horror teen movie. I like his last works in this genre ("Scream 1, 2 & 3") and also the drama "Music of the Heart", and Christina Ricci is very cool. Unfortunately, "Cursed" is a forgettable and predictable collection of clichés. It is amazing how the viewer can predict the next scene! Further, it is amazing how easy is to replace a fancy car in Hollywood: Ellie wrecks her car in the middle of the night, and on the next day she has a brandy new car. Jake breaks the window of the driver of the new car, and on the next sequence we see Ellie driving in a rainy night in high speed without disheveling her hair. Ellie's brother Jimmy unsuccessfully tries to be funny. If you want to see a great werewolf movie, there are many excellent options, but you can forget "Cursed", which is only recommended for killing time. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Amaldiçoado" ("Cursed")

Ellie and kid brother Jimmy are driving home late one night through the Hollywood Hills when something huge and monstrous crosses their path. One nasty road accident later, the annoyingly whiny female passenger of the car they just hit is dragged off into the woods by a mostly unseen creature which rips the woman to shreds - and good riddance. Ellie and Jimmy do not escape unscathed themselves. The creature has mildly injured them both and soon, brother and sister are experiencing heightened senses and suffering the Mark of the Beast on the palm of their hands. For Jimmy, it's a blessing in disguise as he returns to high school and battles the school bully. For Ellie, it's the first step on the path towards discovering who the real monster is, and the suspects are numerous. Will she and her brother discover the identity of the beast in time to save themselves from the curse? Or will they too become full fledged werewolves at the next full moon?

"Cursed" doesn't take itself very seriously as a horror film, or as a comedy. It seems to be trying to decide which it wanted to be, and hadn't made up its mind in time for the closing credits. There are a few genuine laughs to be found throughout, and some nifty references to the bygone days of Universal Creature Features, but for the most part this is a silly, airbrushed effort, filled with Beautiful People acting stupidly. I should have considered myself warned when I saw Scott Baio's name in the opening credits. The werewolf itself has a few good scenes, but I was kind of disappointed to see the legendary Rick Baker's name in the credits, and then find myself face to face with a CGI beast later on. And what was Christina Ricci doing in this? Did she lose a bet with Wes Craven or something?

This film might have fared better in the 80s, but it seems somewhat lifeless and unimaginative these days. I'm just glad I had a free pass, otherwise I would be feeling profoundly ripped off right about now.

I did not expect much, and while the film is not great or anything, I was very entertained. I enjoyed the performances, some of the dialogue was clever and funny. I wanted more gore, but I did like the film a good amount. It did not take itself as seriously as I thought it would, so that was a good thing. I also very much expected a twist ending, or it to end unhappily, but surprise, surprise, it ended happily. I do not know why the film was as critically-bombed as it was, I expect trashy, cheesy, but fun films like these to get at least mixed reviews (like Jennifer's Body). But I very much enjoyed this film, and I expect it to age well with time (as comedic, trashy films like these most of the times do).

Cursed, huh? Well, that appropriately describes what a lot of moviegoers did when the final credits started to roll. This has to be one of the most irrelevant, insignificant movies to come along in quite a while. There's not a single thing I can recommend about this movie. Not a single thing. It offers absolutely nothing new or original to the werewolf genre. Why even bother? The acting is bad, the special effects are unimpressive, I couldn't have cared less about any of the characters or their relationships... seriously, is there a less appealing screen couple than Pacey from Dawson's Creek and Christina Ricci? Wooo, look at Pacey! He's got a neatly trimmed beard! He's all grown up now! Whatever. All he did was spit out some cheesy lines about how Ricci, who he'd been dating for all of two months, was the one for him and he really wanted to make it work and BLAH BLAH BLAH! WHO CARES?!?!?!?! I just wanted to punch the guy in the face. Repeatedly. Until my knuckles bled. I couldn't care less if I never see this guy in another movie ever again.

If you're gonna have characters that I couldn't be less interested in, then please try to have a somewhat interesting story with a few good scares. Oh, you couldn't do that for this movie? Well, believe me, I could tell. The scariest thing about Cursed is Christina Ricci's bulbous forehead. Were those CGI werewolves actually supposed to be scary? Heck, if that's what werewolves were really like, then I'd have pretty good chances if I had to go up against one.

And was it completely impossible to have a semblance of a story? You call those plot twists? Folks, no one over the age of 5 will be surprised at who the main werewolf is. The story is so non-existent that it gives me a headache trying to figure out why. Did Kevin Williamson even try when writing this script? It's as if he asked himself, "How can I make this as clichéd as possible," and then ran with it. In case you forgot, Craven and Williamson teamed up on Scream, which was a very original, clever, and entertaining movie. What in the world has happened since then? How were these two movies written by the same guy? If nothing else, you've gotta at least love the irony in the fact that Cursed is exactly the kind of teen horror movie that Scream poked fun at.

It's pretty sad that Corey Feldman couldn't even keep his name attached to this film (his scenes were cut), but it's even sadder that this movie would've actually been better by having Feldman in it. Ouch. I think that's the true hallmark of a movie's failure. If someone tells you, "Man, you should've kept Feldman's scenes in there, it would've helped," then you need to do some serious soul searching before attempting another movie.

Cursed tries to take a Scream approach and not take itself too seriously, but man, that doesn't mean it had to be a complete joke. I admit that I laughed a few times, but most of the time I was laughing it was because what I was witnessing was just so stupid. Let me ask you something - if you're in the bathroom, and you friend is in the stall making weird noises, and you think he or she is sick, do you go OPEN THE STALL DOOR???? NO! Nobody does that! You may ask if the person's all right, but you don't put your ear to the stall and then open it unless you're just a freak. Sigh.

The most genuinely funny thing in the movie is Scott Baio's cameo as Scott Baio. The running joke is that he's supposed to be the third guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn behind Ashton Kutcher and Carrot Top. But even this is pretty sad since Kilborn's been gone from the show for a few months now. Way to stay on top of things, guys! Looks like somebody has his finger directly on the pulse of today's pop culture! I can't think of a single person to recommend this to. Not even the biggest werewolf movie fan. But I can recommend they change the tagline. Here's my suggestion: A Werewolf Movie That Really Bites. There, I just wrote something more clever than anything found in the script of Cursed, and I wasn't given a $40 million budget to do it.

THE GIST You've been warned, so if you pay money to see Cursed then you've got nobody to blame but yourself. I tried to tell you. Cursed is nothing but a bad made-for-the-WB movie, and I can say without flinching or smirking that Michael Paré's Bad Moon is a better werewolf movie than this toilet log. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know, then there's nothing else I can say.

Rating: 2 (out 5)

Ellie (Christina Ricci) and her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are on their way home when they get into a car accident. While trying to help the other driver out of an overturned vehicle, the other driver is attacked by what Jimmy swears was a "huge man-like wolf". Both Jimmy and Ellie end up scratched and possibly bitten by the creature. When they begin noticing strange physical effects and behavior--including both of them suddenly becoming more assertive socially--they begin to wonder if a werewolf has bitten them. If so, will they turn into werewolves, too?

Cursed had a notoriously difficult time making it to the screen. It began production in 2002, then went through four major shoots with 90% of the material being tossed out at one point. Major characters, played by major actors--including Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Skeet Ulrich--were in and out of the film. Director Wes Craven even ended up abandoning the film altogether when Dimension Films chairman Bob Weinstein demanded a PG-13 cut rather than Craven's initial R. Someone else did the final PG-13 cut. As should be expected, these events appear to have harmed the film.

As the theatrical release stands, chunks of the film appear to be missing. For example, we see Jimmy and Ellie both pretty convinced that they're werewolves shortly after Jimmy first begins researching the symptoms and Ellie thinks he's being ridiculous. The transition is not convincing; there seems to be exposition missing. There are a number of such choppy, non sequitur moments. The film doesn't flow very well.

The most obvious material to be cut--during and after "attack" scenes--surely hurt the film, as well, although part of the problem with these scenes may have been Craven's fault. Like too many recent films, attack scenes are shot blurry, cut way too fast, and they're often too dark. Part of the idea might have been to make the CGI less obvious, but I'd rather have obvious CGI than incoherent scenes.

One final flaw was that the werewolf material in the film wasn't handled very clearly. Whether this was yet another editing problem or a script problem from screenwriter Kevin Williamson is difficult to say, but the film's werewolf "rules" are never well explained. For example, it's never quite clear why the werewolf would want to attack people again and why they wouldn't just be full-fledged lycanthropes the first time. Although this makes a bit more sense later in the film, werewolf "rules" are still implied that are never explained but needed to be.

But there are a number of positive aspects to the film. Craven shows that he hasn't lost his love of postmodernist reference and theatrical "wall breaking", the performances are good, occasionally the film is suspenseful (the car crash near the beginning is especially well done), and Williamson's story overall is intriguing in that Cursed is really a somewhat traditional thriller in which characters just happen to be werewolves.

Craven opens the film at a carnival, which is obviously theatrical, and quickly presents a psychic "performer" who happens to be a "real psychic", taking her job seriously rather than just providing entertainment. The parallel is to Craven as a horror filmmaker, which may often be seen as just an entertainer instead of a "real illusionist" approaching the job with serious intentions. Then he quickly takes us to a club, Tinsel, that's a veritable Madame Tussauds with a Hollywood theme, complete with full, detailed sets. There are numerous horror references in the club, including to Craven's own work, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). This emphasizes the artificiality of cinema in a way similar to the "real film in a film" conceit of Craven's New Nightmare (1994). To push this theatrical wall breaking further, many sets, such as the interior of Jimmy and Ellie's house, are lit and shot so as to emphasize their artificiality--almost as if the film were being made on the displays at the Tinsel club. Craven also has a number of characters working in the entertainment industry, and like New Nightmare, has celebrities playing themselves. As a humorous jab at filmic self-reference and comments about his use of the same in previous films, especially Scream (1996), a pivotal scene near Cursed's false climax is shot in a very artificial-looking hall of mirrors (and this is also literally reminiscent of a number of other horror films, including The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Dr. Giggles (1992) and The Haunting (1999)).

The fact that Williamson has really constructed a thriller, and it just appears to be a werewolf film, is a kind of late-film twist that provides another level of "wall breaking". It's a clever idea that has some similarities to Williamson's I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) script, which continually flirted with the gray area between thrillers and slasher flicks. Williamson also spends time exploring the dramatic consequences of Ellie and Jimmy's newfound power.

However, given the final result, at least with the cut I watched, these more intellectual touches from Craven and Williamson may have ended up being too hip for the film, which Dimension apparently wanted to sell as a more by-the-numbers horror flick geared to pull in younger teens (and a surprising amount of pre-teens in the showing I attended). I'm not usually one to complain about the existence of PG-13 (or even tamer) horror, as I do not think that gore, language, etc. are necessary for a good film. It's not that I dislike gore, but I love the first three Universal Frankenstein films, say, as much as I love the Evil Dead series, Romero's zombie films, or any of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films (and certainly more than I like, say, Andreas Schnaas' work, which has the gore but not much else). But when the result of studios pushing for PG-13 results in such an apparent botch-job, I have to add my voice to the protesters.

The very name of this movie seems all too appropriate. For all the reshoots, redesigns, and other creative decisions that were forced, and all the problems that hounded the production, it sounds like a horrid mess long before one ever sits to watch. Its reputation well precedes it, unfortunately, and still there comes a point where one just has to watch for themselves. To sit and do so, I'm not really sure that there was much chance of this coming out especially strong. I don't know what the dividing line is between the original vision and the rehashed material, and I don't know how much it matters. I think there are some terrific ideas here, some real cleverness - a little bit of the comedy earns a good laugh, some of the horror facets are well done - and I'm always up for a new werewolf movie. Yet so much of this film is heavy-handed, over the top, and maybe outright kitschy, such that whatever value 'Cursed' may have to offer, it's counterbalanced by many other qualities that are rather questionable.

The root concept of most notions here are fine. As in many genre flicks, the characters oscillate between struggling with the changes they're undergoing, and reveling in them, and that's a great dynamic to play with. The narrative is fundamentally strong, the dialogue is mostly just fine, and much of the characterizations and scene writing are splendid. Yet some of those rounding facets of the shooting script are nonetheless far less witty or humorous than they're intended to be, just frankly feeling cheap; other little details throughout, meant to help give shape to the end product, just don't come off well. Some choices even of hair or makeup raise a skeptical eyebrow, and select instances of cinematography are needlessly embellished. In execution some moments or decisions of direction are entirely too on the nose (even the opening scene), and others are altogether tiresome. And all this is to say nothing of the CGI. If only seen at a glance, the digital creations are okay. The more they are emphasized in a sequence, however, the more glaring and awful they appear, and this is never more true than when we get a detailed look at a transformation - to be honest, The Asylum has done better work. Even some blood and gore is transparently inauthentic.

Truthfully, this isn't altogether rotten. 'Cursed' is actually better than I thought it was going to be. The cast make an earnest effort, and it quite seems like they're having a good time for the most part. Judy Greer is especially having a blast, and Christina Ricci probably turns in the single best performance of the film. The end product is, to my surprise, modestly enjoyable. It's just so unfortunate that the movie overexerts itself in trying to be slick, cool, fun, and modern, when all it actually had to do was tell a compelling story. The harder it tries, the worse it fails, and it's almost certainly longer than it needed to be. For whatever aspects of horror or comedy are done well, at large these are not nearly sufficient enough to genuinely inculcate broad feelings of thrills or amusement. At length the result to greet us is a somewhat middling affair that constantly rides a line between welcome and boorish, and that occasionally places one foot on either side of that divide. I see what this could have been, but that's just not what we ultimately get. There are definitely worse things one could watch (Wes Craven himself has made some of them), but unless you're a diehard fan of someone involved, the need to check this out is minimal.

'Cursed' has already earned a place in Hollywood history for it's infamous production problems. Massive re-shoots (rumored up to 75% of the movie), recasts, rewrites, over a year of delays, basically any and everything that could possibly go wrong. Pass this off as credit to Craven as a director and Williamson as a writer that they were still able to pull off something of a fun movie.

A pair of siblings are bitten by a werewolf following a car crash that leaves one woman dead. Amidst their sudden development of new powers they must contend with the traumas the curse brings. Discovering that the only way to lift the curse is to kill the cause of the infection, they must now find out whom the beast is.

On the evolutionary ladder of Craven's films, this is above 'Shocker', below 'Scream', right about on par with 'People Under the Strairs'. Meaning there is some good, gory fun to be had if one doesn't take it too seriously. Those in the market for some blood and laughs ought to have a fine time.

What hurts so much about this, and is the source of much of the films bashing, is that it could have been so much better. While the talents involved worked hard to salvage as much as they could it still feels like an overall missed opportunity. The scares are OK, but not great; the jokes are OK, but not great; the pacing is OK, but not great; noticing a pattern? Technically it's a mixed bag. Great, energetic camera work with some lively stunt work adds a lot of energy, but on/off pacing slows things down again. Characters and scenarios are OK, but dialogue lacks pizazz. And while there is some good gore being tossed around, the creature itself never looks all that believable (neither in CG or costume incarnations).

In the end this is not the ultimate failure fan-boys have tried to pass it off as; time will be kind to Craven's unfortunate child and horror fans should too.

7/10 (Note: review based on R-rated version of film)

Every once in a while, Wes Craven comes out with something new that I enjoy. Scream was the last noteworthy movie I can recall (and that I have seen) that was good. While Cursed was no Scream, it was a pretty good little werewolf movie, despite what Wes, himself, thinks of it. I think it would have been better if it was left uncut, but I still thought pretty highly of it, even if most do not agree.

Cursed is about a brother and sister named Ellie and Jimmy (Christina Ricci & Jesse Eisenberg) who get into a car accident and end up getting bit by something while helping the other motorist. Neither knows what it was, but Jimmy saw the creature directly and describes it as a wolf-like creature. Slowly, they begin to feel the changes one makes when turning into a werewolf and they have to solve the mystery of how to stop it.

I do have to say that Christina Ricci was absolutely stunning. I love the way she looks with her hair down. Also, Kristina Anapau as Brooke was also quite a knock-out.

The plot does take a few turns, some of them not so good but overall, not too bad. The good far outweighed the bad with me. The werewolf itself was awesome, with the exception of the one time you get to watch the transformation. It was OK but could have used a little flair or a bit of violence in the change- maybe something along the lines of Van Helsing's vampire change would have suited me better. Also, the little gay sub-plot thrown in for no apparent reason could have been left out. I realize this sounds weird to say about a horror film, but coming out of the closet in the way shown in this movie was completely unrealistic. Even more so than the fact they were running from werewolves.

I was also a bit disappointed with the ending but I was truly entertained throughout the film and can recommend it with an 8 out of 10.

A fun Christina Ricci film. Not overly dramatic. Original storyline. Not the greatest film ever, just fun and entertaining.

Of course Hollywood can't avoid putting in some of its typical unpopular ideological tropes. Just doesn't belong in entertainment.

Hollywood: how about you just make entertaining films and leave the preaching out of it.

Good twist at the end.

Fun comedy horror.

Just a fun quick flick without your having to get to involved in a long drawn out character history or development. Some times that is just not necessary in a quick rollercoaster ride type story. Enjoyable if you dont expect too much.

"Cursed" is another new and horrible excuse for a horror movie from the talentless pen of Kevin Williamson. He proves (again) that he's the worst thing that could happen to the horror-industry, while director Wes Craven enlarges his list of embarrassingly bad movies (that actually started right after his 1977 film "The Hills have Eyes"). Craven and Williamson's previous collaboration "Scream" actually is a masterpiece compared with this piece of garbage that messes with the – once marvelous – myth of werewolves. Set in Hollywood and revolving on characters you couldn't feel less connected with, this movie feels like another dreadful episode of "Dawson's Creek", only with a wolf instead of James Vander Beek. All the rest is the same: high school popularity contests, glamour-girls battling over the same stud and we even have the classic case of siblings looking after each other due to their parents' sudden death! Sigh...I'm a great fan of classic atmospheric werewolf-tales and witnessing how these legendary creatures are abused here to serve for childish purposes makes me furious. Werewolves don't care for eliminating sexual competition! They don't care about how cute boys look!! There's absolutely no tension in "Cursed", the script is predictable and the attempts to scare the audience are lame. The gore-factor is weak and the werewolf-transformation sequences are downright pitiful. Movies like "An American werewolf in London" and "the Howling" are almost 25 years older but the special effects team of "Cursed" surely could have learned something from them on how making a transformation creepy instead of laughable. Christina Ricci looks yummy in her heroine-role but her boring performance definitely can't make this turkey any more appealing. My humble opinion is that you avoid watching "Cursed" like you would avoid getting Syphillys! There are good recent movies handling about werewolves, like "Dog Soilders" or the "Ginger Snaps"-trilogy, that you can watch instead. Those are good movies, mainly because nor Wes Craven, nor Kevin Williamson had anything to do with them.

Two siblings (Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg) crash their car trying to avoid something large in the road. Though relatively uninjured in the accident, they find themselves having increased strength and senses, as well as being a draw to the opposite sex. Their new powers do come with a heavy price, as they try to find out what really happened that fateful night.

The premise of Cursed sounds creepy but the execution isn't very good. I was expecting something reasonably good since this movie is directed by Wes Craven. Unfortunately, Cursed is no Scream. He appears to have lost his touch as this movie is not very scary nor is it creative. There are some funny and entertaining scenes but the movie is mostly a disappointment. Since the horror is weak, the humor could have saved the film but the screenplay is really bad. Kevin Williamson wrote it and he did a rather poor job since there are a lot of plot holes. Craven and Williamson have made some pretty good films in the past but this is not one they should be proud of.

The acting is okay, not good enough to save the film though not bad enough to make it worse either. Christina Ricci gives a pretty good performance and I think she's an underrated actress. Joshua Jackson gives an okay performance as Jake, nothing special. Mya surprised me with her performance since it was actually okay. Usually, singers don't' make for the best actors/actresses. Shannon Elizabeth gives a terrible performance and her terror scenes will most likely spark laughter instead of screams or chills. Fortunately, she is only in the film for about 15 minutes. Portia de Rossi is in the film for about three minutes so there's no point in watching the film just for her. Judy Greer gives a good performance as the bitchy Joanie.

The special effects look really bad and this brings down the movie significantly. The werewolf looks so bad that it kills any chance for suspense, scares and thrills. I'm still not sure if this was done on purpose or not. I saw the unrated version and the PG-13 version, so I can't compare the two. There wasn't a lot of gore in this version though. I don't know if that will bother a lot of people or not but really big horror fans will probably find the film too lame. I have never really been a fan of werewolf movies and this one did very little to convert me. If anything, this movie proves how ineffective werewolf movies can be. They are better suited for Scooby Doo and not for Wes Craven films. In the end, Cursed offers some entertaining spots but the movie is mostly a disappointment and this film is better left on the shelf. Rating 5/10

I love Wes Craven's films but this was one film that he should have just stayed away from. Scream writer Kevin Williamson tried to write a teen horror movie with werewolves and it failed. The main problem is the story and special effects. The story revolves around a brother and sister who are in a car accident and are wounded by a werewolf. Dismissing warnings that they are cursed they begin feeling the changes. They accept their fate and find out that the only way to stop the curse is to kill the one who started it (big yawn). The special effects are terrible and they don't scare you at all. The reason why is because Wes Craven is now going with computer effects for its werewolf transformations. The transformations are so fake that they make you laugh. Kevin Williamson needs to realize that this is not the '90s anymore and stop trying to make horror films that are repetitive (just watch Scream than watch Cursed and you will see the similarities). Basically, Wes Craven's Cursed is like an episode of Dawson's Creek with werewolves (speaking of which Joshua Jackson is in this picture). The movie had so much potential and with a great and well respected director like Wes Craven, but it fails with its idiotic story and special effects.

"Hey, let's make Scream again, except werewolves!" is what I imagine Kevin Williamson said to Wes Craven excitedly one day during a script meeting on Scream 3. It's one of those ideas that feels fresh when you don't think about it very much, but the more you do consider it, the more you realize that it's just as derivative as Scream had become by its third entry. There needs to be more there beyond the concept, and the more seems to have been a season's worth of storylines all shoved into one 95-minute film quite uncomfortably. That being said, it's at least likeable enough to get through. A solid cast and some decently entertaining dialogue paper over enough of the frustrating elements that have been inelegantly ported over from Scream to keep the affair from being a complete slog.

Ellie (Christina Ricci) works as a low-level publicist in Hollywood whose boyfriend, Jake (Joshua Jackson), has a reputation for dating girls briefly before dropping them. She has to leave an event one night to take her younger brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) home from the movies because he has no friends. On their way home, they find a wrecked car where a young woman is begging for her life before they are all attacked by a large doglike creature in the dark. Both Ellie and Jimmy get bitten while the girl dies. Jimmy is convinced that what attacked them is a werewolf.

Now, I think my biggest problem is that we have both Ellie and Jimmy working through their experiences of having been bitten by a werewolf and turning into one themselves. This movie is only about an hour and a half long, and largely because there are two characters with claim to the title of main character (Ricci may be on the poster, but Eisenberg has just about as much screentime) who both have their own little worlds that they inhabit with friends, enemies, and crushes, there's no time to really settle into anything. On the one hand, we have Ellie managing her boyfriend, the other women who want her boyfriend (including her boss, Judy Greer's Joanie), and her actual job that has something to do with promoting Scott Baio. On the other hand, you have Jimmy dealing with a bully at school (Milo Ventimiglia's Bo), a crush (Kristina Anapau's Brooke), and, thankfully, the movie treats Jimmy like a fake high school student instead of a real one. He never goes to class. That cleans things up a lot.

Actually, no, it doesn't. Either this was supposed to be a more than two-hour long movie, or Kevin Williamson was just struggling to bring in his subplots to a manageable two-hour movie breadth (he's written a whole lot more television than film), and Wes Craven just simply filmed what Williamson gave him. The film ends up so overstuffed with minor characters that hardly any of them make any kind of impression. The other problem is that the convention of slashers where a tight group of people gets picked off one by one makes some narrative sense. You get a handful of scenes to get your characters in front of the audience before they start getting ripped apart, so you streamline the storytelling in order to introduce as many as cleanly as possible. Splitting it out between two completely different friend/work/school groups is inefficient at best in such a short film.

Anyway, the two develop nascent werewolf powers. Ellie develops a taste for blood that she has trouble controlling, and Jimmy becomes a wunderkind wrestler to embarrass Bo in front of everyone. It turns out, though, that Bo has been attacking Jimmy for being gay (he's not) because Bo is actually gay himself and he's got repressed homosexuality! Okay...what does this have to do with anything?

The film concludes with a big party scene (it seems to be something of a default for Williamson) where the werewolf that bit the two siblings on the road comes out and attacks everyone. It ends up being about two women fighting over a man, and if anyone but Judy Greer were doing some of the cat-fighting I'd enjoy it less. She's simply a fun actor, especially when she decides to vamp it up. But is that the real werewolf? Will there be another attack when we think all is well? Yes, there's another twist! I did not see that coming! Except I did.

Okay, I feel like I'm being too mean and sarcastic at this point. The film is derivative, not all that unpredictable, and kind of bland in that mid-00s sort of way, but it's entertaining enough to pass the time. The werewolf effects, well, at least the practical ones, are quite good. The CGI is typical, rushed, mid-00s CGI, which means it's kind of awful. Ricci is okay as the purported main character, and Eisenberg is fine as the second fiddle. It's a decent enough, if not nearly as imaginative as it seems to think it is, whodunit mixed with a werewolf story. The action and horror is probably what buoys it the most, with a solid sequence in a parking lot (with a character we don't care about or know) that stands out.

It's definitely not Craven's worst work, but it's kind of in line with what I would expect from the Williamson/Craven team at this point.

I've been waiting to see Cursed for a very long time, probably more than a year, since the first time I heard about it. I expected a great movie, with Wes Craven at the helm why wouldn't it be a great film? I went to the opening day matinée showing and this is how I sum it up.

Cursed fails to capture the audience's attention for a few main reasons. First and foremost, it follows too much standardized formula and fails to think outside the box. Watching Cursed, you can almost predict exactly what will happen and when it will happen. The script could have been improved with a few minor changes which would have changed the entire direction of the film. Instead you have an A-Typical werewolf film with the protagonists fighting to save them selves from the "curse". Sorry folks, this story has been done in other horror films more times than I can count, and not just in werewolf films!

One element I didn't care for was when the brother, Jimmy, suggests being a werewolf could be cool. This is exactly where the story should have gone from that point onwards. But as quickly as he says being a werewolf could be cool, he falls back to the standard "gotta kill the head werewolf and end this curse" attitude. The movie would have been better if Jimmy had welcomed his "curse". Had that one change in plot occurred the story could have gone off in several darker and more interesting plot lines.

I can't fault the CGI effects for a change. I am strong opponent of CGI technology as the effects usually look awful.In Cursed the effects are better than normal, although they are still no where near the traditional "An American Werewolf in London" make-up and prosthetics quality.

I did enjoy the humor in the film. Cursed does offer several very funny moments and a few corny ones too. Without the humor the movie would have been an utter waste of time. The humor helps detract from the poor plot line which you can tell was attempting to be clever like Scream, but failing miserably.

I wonder if Wes Craven was even on the set when this film was made. It seemed to lack of the trademark qualities of a Craven film. Whatever the case may be it is obvious he did not do his research in what makes a great werewolf film.

Werewolf films, to be effective, must have several good transformation scenes, graphic mauling and mutilations and an innocent protagonist who is seduced by the curse. Cursed really has none of these qualities.

Overall I did enjoy the film, but I also expected the movie would fail to "wow me", which it did. It seems to me that the problems with Cursed were mostly script and plot related. Don't expect to be scared, but try to have a little fun with what it is.

Remember, werewolf movies are almost never scary...especially if they throw in a happy ending!

From creators ¨Scream¨,bring us this ¨Cursed¨,a creepy terror movie that have you breathless.After an appointment with her boyfriend(Joshua Jackson), a publicist(Christina Ricci) along with his brother,a geeky high school student named Jimmy(Jesse Eisenberg) are going at home.But they have an accident against the occupant(Shannon Elizabeth) another car in Mulholland road,Hollywood,Los Angeles.An strange animal spontaneously bites to the driver and the brothers. Later they are developing an extraordinary force and aware themselves which there happened more than an accident and they have a terrible curse who cannot to control.Then they undergo a dental and hirsute transformation at the night and going on a murderous rampage every time the moon is full.They increased strength,heightened senses and unnatural sexual allure and they sprout hair and pointy ears,their hands have a five-pointed star like a pentagram,but it's the mark of the beast and pretty freaks occur them.They've been infected,there're cursed ,they've got to sever the line of the beast.They bear the marking of the beast,the only way to break the curse is to find the werewolf which attack them.The problem is how to kill the werewolf , no with silver but actually have to separate the head from the heart ,silver just hurts a lot.

The motion picture displays action,suspense,terror with fun touches and is quite amusing.It's a crossover with a little of the classic version Lon Chaney Werewolf,John Landis' Werewolf in London and Michael J Fox's Teenwolf and wrapped in a postmodern style.It's some different but with clear reference to previous films.The transformation of man into werewolf is complex and is made by computer generator FX,and a device under remote control ,thus the radio-control moves the eyes,ears,nose, lips werewolf ,besides an actor into the suit brings the life and of course a magnificent make up by the master Rick Baker and Greg Nicotero. The story contains various versions Nc 13 parents guide and Nc 17 with more or less gore.The famous screenwriter Kevin Williamson provided a well-knit plot with mystery and horror,giving full rein to Wes Craven natural talent for the terror genre.The film is dedicated to the producer movie Dan Arredondo.It's a standard terror and sometimes graphically gory and turns out to be an average attempt to cash in the werewolf sub-genre.

I'm sad that so many people have not liked this movie! It was a total parody of every werewolf movie you have ever seen. I thought it was hilarious and I think that's what Kevin Williamson wanted (but who am I to speculate?). I thought of the movie in the same way I thought of Scream... a lot of people saw Scream as just a cheesy horror movie, but those that are huge horror fans and have a sense of humor, got the joke.

Lighten up.

My advice to those who haven't seen the movie: Don't take it so seriously! It's supposed to be fun. The obvious jokes aren't the only ones you are supposed to laugh at ;)

With CURSED, Wes Craven has made an exciting if not terribly scary werewolf movie, and pays plenty of tribute to such past horror flicks as THE WOLFMAN, A WEREWOLF IN London, THE HOWLING, SILVER BULLET, TEEN WOLF and even FRIGHT NIGHT. A young woman (Ricci) and her kid brother (Eisenberg) fall afoul of a werewolf and must do something to keep themselves from becoming werewolves themselves. The flick adds a touch of mystery as the siblings attempt to determine who among their acquaintances is the true villain. The primary werewolf is impressive looking, but appears to be almost 100 percent a CGI creation, which harms the overall effect. The delightful Judy Greer plays a p.r. flunky, and steals every scene she is in. Hardly Craven's best, but certainly entertaining.

I remember watching the 2005 movie "Cursed" back in the day when it was just newly released. But truth be told, then I had entirely forgotten about the movie, aside from the title, here in 2022, as I stumbled upon the movie once again. So of course, I opted to sit down and watch writer Kevin Williamson's 2005 movie a second time.

I will say that "Cursed" is certainly watchable. But when that it is said, then I also have to say that the storyline is very generic, even for a werewolf movie. So you know what you are getting here, provided you are familiar with the various and numerous werewolf movies out there, for better or worse.

Visually then "Cursed" was and is actually quite adequate. The creature special effects, especially the practical ones are quite good, and actually still hold their ground today, 17 years after the movie came out. As for the CGI effects, well they are somewhat outdated and doesn't come off all that well when you watch the movie today.

I remember that Christina Ricci was in the movie, but that was actually the only one of all the casted performers that I remembered here. The movie also have the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson, Judy Greer and Milo Ventimiglia on the cast list. It was nice to find out that it was actually Derek Mears that played the part of the werewolf in the movie, that was something I just found out now that I am reviewing the movie on IMDb.

"Cursed" is a watchable werewolf movie, but not a particularly outstanding or memorable one, truth be told. It is worth a watch if you enjoy a traditional old-fashioned werewolf movie.

My rating of "Cursed" lands on a five out of ten stars.