The Cured

The Cured is the third Irish horror film I watched in 2018. And, just like with The Lodgers, I had a blast with this movie!

Directorial debut of David Freyne, The Cured is set in a world were, after a zombie outbreak, 75% of the turned have been cured. While society is trying to go back to normality, welcoming back the so-called cured, scientists are trying to reverse the zombification process for the remaining 25% of infected. The audience follows Senan (Sam Keeley), a cured person who's sent to live with his sister-in-low (Ellen Page) and her kid, as he struggles to deal with the 4 years he spent as an undead. Because, to make matters worse for the cured, they're both welcomed with hostility by people and must deal with the vivid memories from the period when they were zombies.

This is a great concept for a movie, a concept that's smartly developed by Mr Freyne: first and foremost, he decides to narrow down the story. Unlike the majority of zombie flicks, which show the whole world getting affected by the outbreak, here the story unfolds in a small Irish town, providing the film with a sense of authenticity and realism that is pretty much unprecedented in such movies. Very calmly paced, bleak and featuring sort of "human" zombies, The Cured is exceptionally directed: without a doubt, this is the most evenly paced horror film of 2018 - so far - since it presents no dull moments nor sudden and inexplicable switches in tone and vibe. Shot and edited in a somewhat minimalistic fashion - as in, photography and cinematography aren't anything mind-blowing, but they perfectly fit the movie - Freyne's first directorial effort flows seamlessly throughout the 90-minute-long runtime, becoming more and more down-on-earth as the time goes by. Without being pretentious or trying too hard, The Cured showcases an insane amount of competent shot compositions and framing, demonstrating how much effort was put into the project.

The same effort that each of the cast members surely put: Ellen Page and Sam Keeley are fantastic in the movie, displaying mesmerising performances that, at the beginning of the first act, reach a pinnacle with one of the most emotional confrontations I've seen in a while. Even the supporting cast, albeit rather one-note, do an outstanding job that fits their roles. Although The Cured is foremost a drama, the horror elements seamlessly blend in, with a few scenes that stand out as very creepy and impactful. Being fully aware of the budget restraints, the filmmakers rarely went for berserk zombie actions... but when they did, it was loads of fun. Not mindless fun, though, since the audience got invested in the characters, therefore we experience with apprehension these action sequences. A great, fitting grand finale perfectly wraps the movie up, leaving no room for major complaints. Besides, The Cured might have more to tell than meets the eye - I personally, have an interpretation for the movie's meaning that, albeit 100% spoiler-free, might affect your viewing experience, so feel free to skip the next paragraph.

THE CURED - MEANING EXPLAINED. Since the film is set in Ireland, my girlfriend and I figured it seems pretty obvious the story was a metaphor for the long-lasting civil war between Protestants and Catholics. In this scenario, the cured would represent Irish Catholics who are never really accepted as part of the society by the other religious group. Certain scenes in the movie (and other aspects I don't want to spoil), which resemble more terrorist attacks than zombie actions, seem to back up this interpretation.

Oh, welcome back guys! As per usual, I have a few minor complaints with The Cure: for instance, there are a couple of dialogue sequences that seemed very hasty, where the movie switches abruptly from two characters speaking to a completely unrelated scene. There are also one or two fake jump-scares just for the sake of it, I guess...

My biggest issue, which I'm sure bothers only me and 2/3 other viewers and won't be a problem for most of you, revolves around the opening scene: a caption tell the audience everything we need to know about the film (which is what I used as plot description for this review). I, personally, would have preferred a subtler approach, where the viewer is introduced to the story without knowing anything and has to figure out, gradually, what's going on. By doing so, the filmmakers would have enhanced the audience's attention even more, building up a mystery the viewer would have loved to figure out. I know, I'm a nit-picker! In fact, other than these very minute issues, I loved The Cured. I think most people are going to dig the movie as well, but I'm quite positive for some it would be too big of a departure from "traditional" zombie movies. Proceed with caution, and enjoy The Cured!

Check other reviews out at https://horrorworld.reviews/ The Cured 8.5/10

I won't get into the allegorical aspects of how this movie ties zombies into the overall social aspect of, say, immigration or Northern Ireland.

This review is simply to recommend this movie as one that covers all its basis quite well. Acting is spot-on, good pacing, soundtrack isn't overwhelming or distracting.

For zombie fans, The Cured does advance this genre in how it looks at the horror from a different angle - that of the infected's perspective.

It's truly pathetic. I watched In The Flesh years ago. In the Flesh was about the Zombie outbreak being cured, but you had to take medication constantly. Supplies started to get low and a very interesting effect of people basically being racist against infected ensued. They didn't tout themselves as being so original as this DIRECT and INFERIOR ripoff does.

And gosh look at how the false claims works! Half the reviews are about how breathtakingly original it is...it's as interesting an effect on the masses as either. People don't bother to look into claims these days, choosing instead to believe things as they're presented. In this case they believe the PR press, so they actually promote it.

These people are the real Zombies.

Go find the original it's called In The Flesh.

If you are looking for a purely mindless crimson-sprayed gangrenous brain-gorging splatter-fest, The Cured is almost guaranteed to bore you to tears. Not that it is lacking its share of gore and heart-pounding zombie-runs, but this film is focused on the social and interpersonal dimensions of a post-infection world, rather than running for your life and mashing Zombie brains in order to keep your own grey matter off the menu. As a well-crafted tale about "othering", and the directed and broader impacts of the alienation of one group by a "well meaning" majority, this film, possibly unintentionally, delivers an almost perfect analogy for the impact to the broader gay community of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 90s. The film also maps successfully to the impact of demonising migrant, ethnic and religious groups (very possibly its intent, coming from Northern Ireland); take your resonant flavour of "othering" and insert here. A stark, brutal and effective expository. If you want to cook up extremists, this film delivers the recipe...

As an experimental vehicle for the fabulous Ellen Page, this film didn't get the exposure it deserved - Page once again proves both her versatility and her ability to believably breathe gritty appeal into the characters she inhabits. The other key cast were equally compelling, save maybe for Paula Malcomson, who maybe didn't receive the best treatment from the production - she felt atypically undercooked as Dr Lyons.

A must-see if you want some gore and splatter to go with a massage of your grey matter.

This is my first review. there are no spoilers. I thought this was a good premise for a movie - not all of us live in the U.K., sadly. It was well written, very well acted, and I really quite enjoyed it. From someone who is really quite versed in the zombie genre, I thought it was comparable to The Girl With All The Gifts; a fresh take on the zombie narrative. I would recommend it, certainly, if you're a sucker for zombie films. Though it has a somewhat predictable plot, overall it was an enjoyable film, with some really interesting elements thrown in. I'll watch it again.