In 2014, Judy Greer spoke of the film in an interview. Greer states, "I don't know why that movie got so fucked up. I don't understand it. I thought the script was fine. Honest to God, I didn't get the big deal. I don't know who kept making them fuck with it". She goes on to say, "Then we shot the movie for, like, seven years. I think they said we had four movies worth of footage. It was so fun, but so weird. I don't get it. I couldn't figure it out."
When the production was stalled, many cast members were cut, including Illeana Douglas, Heather Langenkamp, Scott Foley, Omar Epps, Robert Forster, James Brolin and Corey Feldman. All of these actors even filmed their scenes which were cut when the movie was re-written and re-shot.
In 2008, Wes Craven was quoted saying; "... the Cursed experience was so screwed up. I mean, that went on for two-and-a-half years of my life for a film that wasn't anything close to what it should have been. And another film that I was about to shoot having the plug pulled - Pulse - so it was like, I did learn from the Cursed experience not to do something for money. They said, 'We know you want to do another film, we'll pay you double.' And we were 10 days from shooting, and I said fine. But I ended up working two-and-a-half years for double my fee, but I could have done two-and-a-half movies, and done movies that were out there making money. In general, I think it's not worth it and part of the reason my phone hasn't rung is that that story is pretty well known.
Rick Baker did the werewolf effects for the original version of the film but once Bob Weinstein and Miramax ordered re-shoots all the scenes with Baker's effects were deleted and KNB had to take over. But even most of their work didn't make it into the final film because Miramax and Bob Weinstein thought that their effects didn't look good so they added a lot of CGI into the film to cover up all the practical effects, like death scenes and almost all the werewolf scenes. There are some promotional stills that were shown in magazines like Fangoria at the time of the production which show some of the "removed" practical gore effects.
In the original version, the film opened with the benefit party by PETA on the hotel roof. Parts of the scene were kept from the original shooting but in the final cut, that scene is at about 50 minutes from the beginning. Mya replaced Mandy Moore in this scene.
Craig Kilborn, Scott Baio: In the film, Ellie is shown to be working for the crew of The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (1999) with Kilborn making a cameo appearance and Scott Baio appearing as himself being booked to appear on the show. By the time the film was released in February 2005, Kilborn had left the show and had been replaced with Craig Ferguson.
Wes Craven: [the main character experiences traumatizing nightmares that reflect reality or affect reality] In this film, Ellie Meyers experiences a horrifying and bizarre nightmare about lycanthropy that's linked to her and her brother's attack from a werewolf. Other Craven films such Les Griffes de la nuit (1984), L'emprise des ténèbres (1988), and Un vampire à Brooklyn (1995) also explore the theme of nightmares being linked to reality through trauma.