MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological* *SPOILERS* CURSED might have reunited director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson of the SCREAM series, but from the beginning it took on the aura of a "cursed" film. Producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein repeatedly required changes to the script and to the FX team, in the latter case firing the famous Rick Baker in favor of using more CGI animation for the film's monsters. Craven later bemoaned that the film took roughly two years to complete, and the film flopped at the theaters. I re-watched an uncut version of the movie, which was two minutes longer than the theatrical release. Yet I'm not sure that had the film featured more of the violent R-level effects Craven had wanted, it would have been much better than what resulted: a slick, mildly engaging drama about a couple of young adults turning into werewolves.
In many monster-movies, the narrative emphasis focuses upon the monster, particularly when the monster's identity is the center of a mystery, as was the case with the SCREAM series. Here, though, the narrative focus is upon TV-production assistant Ellie Myers (Christina Ricci) and her high-school-aged brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg). A chance encounter with an unidentified animal out in the Los Angeles countryside leaves them with bite-wounds. When both of them begin manifesting strange symptoms, including greater aggression, enhanced strength and a lust for blood, they are forced to consult folklore books for a cure. The only cure is to kill the "alpha wolf" who either bit them or who created the creature that bit them-- which means that the siblings must play detective to find their lupine progenitor-- and to bring an end to a new cycle of werewolf killings in Los Angeles.
And now comes the spoiler-ific part of the review: the beast that bit the siblings in the woods is one of Ellie's co-workers, one Joanna (Judy Greer), and her other victims are mostly young women whom Joanna perceived as competition for the alpha wolf who created her, Jake (Joshua Jackson). The story culminates in two violent but subcombative battles: one in which the siblings manage to get Joanna killed by police gunfire, and another in which the two of them manage to employ various werewolf-weaknesses against Jake, so that he dies and removes the beast-curse from the two of them.
Despite the movie's focus upon Ellie and Jimmy, they're not very interesting characters, and neither Ryder nor Eisenberg can do much with them-- possibly because they as actors were flummoxed by the assorted script-changes. Joshua Jackson also wasn't able to put much feeling into his underwritten alpha-wolf character, but Judy Greer benefits from being able to play Joanna as a power-crazed bitch, enjoying her ability to slam her "children" around because they've not yet attained full werewolf status. However, the climax probably would have been more powerful had the script gone in the direction of WOLF's conclusion, with "good werewolves" fighting "bad werewolves." I have to say that even though it would have been interesting to see what Rick Baker would have concocted had he not been discharged, the CGI werewolves look pretty good and are the best thing about CURSED.
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