The Cursed opens in a battle during WWI, it was remarkably similar to the Death on Nile opening from last weekend, and a solider gets shot. When the doctor is removing the bullets from the guy, he pulls out an odd cone shaped silver bullet. Then it goes back to the late 1800s to a small village in Europe. There are a few families a part of the group, and the heads of the households meet regularly to discuss business. There is a group of Roma (or as they say in the film, Gypsies) close to their land. The Roma claim that it is theirs, but the families claim it as theirs, so they form a mob and ride down and burn the Roma's settlement to the ground and massacre everyone, but they keep two alive to torture. They turn the man into a scarecrow, and the woman gets buried alive, but before she does, she curses the village, thus the title.
So the children start having creepy dreams about the two Roma, and they start to feel drawn out to the grave. When the children all group up and dig up the box, they find a pair of dentures made of silver wolf like teeth. One of the boys puts the teeth in his mouth, gets possessed and bites the boy next to him. From there it continues to get weird and gross as the village gets thrown into fear because there is now a monster lurking around looking for its next victim. A medical examiner shows up who has experience in this field, and the hunt/investigation begins.
The Cursed is a dark and gruesome film that really sets the tone from its open. It is quite a gruesome and cringe inducing sight when they are using forceps to pull the bullets out of the soldier in the medical tent during the opening scene. Then once they moved to the village setting, the sun was never present, it was either gray and gloomy or dark. They used fog heavily as well to convey a sense of the unknown and foreboding. The gore continued when they cut off the hands and feet of the Roma man and stuffed his shirt and pants with straw to turn him into a scarecrow and raised him up on a cross. There are also several mutilated bodies due to the beast that is maiming them, and once bitten the people's body goes through a transformation and has vines coming out of it. It is quite gross at times.
Even with all this, they do fail to create any real scares or suspense. They made an effective monster, technically it is a Werewolf, but it is hairless, so it looks more like Schmiegel, the thing from Lord of the Rings, on steroids instead of a werewolf. It is a well-crafted monster, just not what one would traditionally think. It is a crafty beast and garners quite a few victims even once they know to be on the lookout. The weirdest thing about the werewolf was that it kept the victim in an embryo inside their body, so once the beast was killed, the person could be cut out, but they were not the same after that.
The beginning of the movie relied heavily on the idea that children pay for the sins of their fathers. The kids were the ones having the bad dreams about the two Roma after they were murdered not the fathers. The kids were also the main ones involved when it came to the werewolves initially. This was also when the movie was at its creepiest, the kids kept having these nightmares where they would be out in the field, and they would start digging under the scare crow, and they would dig up the teeth, and then the scare crow would slowly turn its head, or the woman would appear in the distance and slowly come closer. It was incredibly effective, but sadly it only lasted for a small portion of the movie.
There was also a strong criticism on the fear of others. When it came to the Roma and their unnecessary massacre, it was due to the families in the village feeling threatened and being unwilling to share with people they did not consider kin. The Roma were not harming the families at all, and they did have the rightful claim to the land, but since they were viewed as lesser, they were killed, not even forced to leave. It was quite sad, but at least they got some level of payback.
It also could have been viewed as a pandemic movie. There was a widespread fear about something out in the woods, but they were not quite sure what it was, so of course people were skeptical, and they kept going out, and this caused more people to die, because they would not believe in the legitimacy of the threat. Not too unlike people's response to covid. There was also a mention of the cholera outbreak, and how some towns were closing their doors to outsiders so that they would not get the disease.
Overall, this was an okay movie, it had its moments, especially at the beginning, but it did fade out. I went in blind; I had not seen a commercial for it. I just knew it was a horror film that took place in the 1800s, and I do appreciate when horror films are more colonial in nature, it gives it an extra flare of a lack of technology. The movie did do a good job of getting its point across. I cannot say I would recommend it, unless you are into werewolf movies, but this one really gives it its own unique twist. I give it 2.5 stars.
Other Movies This Week:
The Fallout: This was by far the best movie I watched over the weekend. A girl who is in the bathroom when a school shooting occurs forms a strong bond with two others that seek shelter in the bathroom, and it goes into her journey through the trauma, and how it affected her and those around her. It is very heavy at times, but it is incredibly well done and a beautiful and at times heartbreaking story. WATCH THIS ON HBO MAX.
Dog: Channing Tatum, playing an ex-army ranger, and a dog travel along the west coast to get the dog to her handler’s funeral. The movie is unsure of what it wants to be. It tries to address some veterans’ issues, but ultimately fails to do so. It also tries to be a comedy, but the laughs are few and far between, so it does its best at being a road trip movie. Thankfully the west coast is filled with beautiful scenery, so you just need to have a solid soundtrack to play over footage of the truck driving across beautiful pieces of scenery, and this movie does do that well!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A reboot on the franchise that is very reminiscent of the newest Halloween reboot. It tries to become a little too political about the dangers of capitalism and millennials. The chainsaw does get put to good use in a variety of creative ways, and the first kill in the police van was pretty creative, but overall, it was underwhelming but plenty gruesome.
The Summit of the Gods: I am relatively new to anime, but I do love hiking and climbing movies/documentaries, so I thought this was a unique way to go about telling this story. They did a good job, obviously mountains will never look better animated compared to real footage, but their creation of natural landscapes was still beautiful.
New Rankings:
The Cursed: 2.5 Stars
The Fallout: 4 Stars
Dog: 2.5 Stars
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022): 2.5 stars
The Summit of the Gods: 3.5 Stars
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