The Cursed

Although "The Cursed" was shot in 2007 it wasn't released until early 2010 on Syfy.

THE PLOT: A writer (Brad Thornton) comes to a small Tennessee town to complete a book and strange things start happening – animals and people mysteriously disappear or are slaughtered. He hooks up with a good-looking librarian (Francesca Cecil) and they trace the problem to a satanic curse from the post-Civil War era. Meanwhile the sheriff (Louis Mandylor) is at his wits end trying to figure out what's going on and increasingly suspects the writer's involvement.

Although this is a low-budget, independent film it's considerably better than Syfy's usual fare, e.g. "Gatorade vs. Mega-Cleavage." How so? For one, it maintains a serious vibe, which is important in an age when most mystery/horror films belong in the comedy section. Secondly, the film creates a mysterious ambiance throughout, akin to "The Fog" but with a Stephen King plot minus the cartoony characters.

Speaking of the atmosphere, I really liked how you can hear the distinctive Eastern forest sounds, like the crickets and peepers, etc. I realize it's odd to point this out but the movie did this better than any that I can remember. The film was shot in McMinnville, Tennessee, by the way (and it's nice to see a film of this ilk shot somewhere other than Bulgaria, Romania or British Columbia).

Another positive is the monster's appearance, particularly when it opens its mouth (when it's closed it doesn't look very impressive).

Negatives include too much obvious dubbing and plot elements that simply don't make sense (why would the killer of the demon become the monster? And how would the old black guy know this with any certainty?); in addition, I disapprove of two important people biting the dust and the very end is lame.

FINAL WORD: Although it's nothing to get overly excited about, "The Cursed" is effective for a TV horror film. The filmmakers and actors take the material seriously and the film evokes a cool creepy atmosphere, but the negatives cited above force me to give it a fairly mediocre rating or "almost good".

GRADE: C+.

This is a fairly trite story line, about the unkillable evil, the same old super evil that cannot be killed. The treatment of the topic here is fairly clever, however.

We get more than one main character. In essence, we get an impression that the writer was alluding to "Lifeforce" in many ways, with one man a hands on operator battling demons in his life, and the other man an official who comes in to clean up. However, these characters are much more credible and identifiable than the ones from "Lifeforce".

The minor characters are plentiful. Some are three dimensional, but there are many who seem to be mere plot devices. These are minimal, and come across more credible, since they are demographic enough. For instance, there is one old demon battler, and three vigilantes who do the doomed vigilantes in the woods theme (which has become popular the past 10 years, but not trite yet). These are a minority, even in the small town, as there are nearly a hundred who meet to discuss action. Therefore, they seem a little more credible as a demographic.

The logical course of action is well thought out by the writer. Much of this is cleverly done. Near the beginning, a rancher tells the lawman that his cattle have been mutilated in a very unexplainable way. We soon learn this is not an isolated case, and the writer shows us very much in a few scenes. Someone is actually learning how to write at Sci Fi.

One hero has a lot of credibility, but the story seems to want to make him a cigarette smoker very badly, even though he is physically fit, lean, and a writer. Most of us have never even met a man who smokes who is lean, physically fit, and creative, nor one who is a jogger or writer. Also, he begins the day by waking up and jogging. Any one who jogs knows that this is unrealistic. Any one who did this would pull a muscle almost every time, and lose out on weeks at a time. The military purposely has GIs warm up with calisthenics before their jog.

But these are nit picks. Obviously one of the sponsors is involved with tobacco, so we can overlook this if it isn't overdone, and if the story is well done. This one passes the test, although the ending is a bit trite and over the top for this otherwise well written piece.

After losing his job and his girlfriend Denny travels to Tennesee to spend some time with a friend and do some research on some of it's history; specifically matters concerning unsolved murders of people and animals. Shortly after his arrival, more murders of people and animals occur. The sheriff is suspicious of him (never mind that the town has had a history long before Denny showed up) but at this point it's only an "interesting coincidence".

More stuff happens, and it turns out that all of it is connected to an ancestor of Denny's, Charles Dellington, who was a former slave owner in Tennessee. Seems that after the slaves were liberated old man Dellington couldn't get anyone to work for him because of his bad reputation. So he tried to work the land himself, but that failed. He tried raising cattle; that too failed. He prayed to God for help, but it seems God was busy, or something. Desperate, Dellington tried "the other guy" (yeah, the Devil). He draws a large pentagram, strips down to his underwear, and lies down at it's center and offers the devil his soul. This is some old guy, folks, so we know the Devil couldn't have been too pleased with that maneuver. He cursed the poor bastard.

In my mind this is at best a 4 star movie. The acting could have been a little better on the part of some of the cast members. And the story (as usually is the case) could have been more imaginative though I did like the form the ghost took. There's also some very bad "old man" make-up in here so the make-up artist should go back to school. Lastly, I never really understood the reason for all the killings; animals, people, WTF?!!! If you see the movie let me know. Love, Boloxxxi.

The Mandylor brothers, Louis and Costas, who aren't getting any younger or better in the acting department, costar in this no-budget demon-hunting tale set in a Steven King-type small town. The demon has been awakened from a long sleep by the arrival of a young writer, whose family was from the town and who is connected to it somehow. It starts off by killing some cattle and then tears up a whole bunch of people, including most of the cast, which isn't all that large. The script is pretty bad, the acting is wooden, and the special effects are just so-so. The demon itself isn't all that bad-looking and wisely is kept in shadow most of the time -- and frankly it could just as easily have been a werewolf. I think the filmmakers were influenced by the TV show, SUPERNATURAL. The ending is lifted from both John Carpenter's THE THING and THE FALLEN.

I gave this movie a high rating due to a number of things. First, I have to say, a number of people gave this movie a low rating because it was not a Steven King movie (although the fact is that most movies based on King's books are lousy). So comparing books to movies is not fair. Then, this movie's budget was $1,750,000 an amount that many movies spend feeding the crews. It is set in the deep south, not in some modern city, so the characters fit the settings. This movie is actually based on a couple of legends of the deep south, it is not an adaptation of anyone, including King's books. I found it interesting and unique, not what is now in style, such as the usual "lost footage" (the worse possible thing around) or "woman running through forest", as predictable as it gets. It's not a (teen) vampire movie, a person actually compared it to that. It's bloody and I liked the special effects. For the price they did a very nice job. I don't give many movies high rating, if they are lousy, I so state. Nice take on legends of the south, about evil plantation owners.