Image Credit: Cursed (2020) © Netflix
A Nostalgic Look at an Unusual Werewolf Oddity
Something's wrong. The only way you can break the curse is to kill the person who started it all. Welcome back to the 14th annual Halloween special. Tonight we're talking about a film that is quite the oddity. A movie that came out in 2005 that was aiming for a 2003 release date. And here, a werewolf loose in Los Angeles changes the lives of three young adults who, after being mauled by the beast, learn they must kill it in order to avoid becoming werewolves themselves. Please stick around for this full video because I have a surprise guest that's going to illuminate us on some fun facts regarding this movie, particularly one moment that may or may not be the most famous moment in the whole movie. Cursed is a very strange film for me because I find this movie immensely nostalgic for many reasons. It was PG-13. It came out in 2005. I was allowed to watch it. I loved werewolf movies. I was excited about seeing it. And I thought the idea of seeing a Wes Craraven movie about a werewolf was cool enough. I didn't need the movie to be perfect. And I was unaware of the issues the movie dealt with during production. Now, all these years later, I'm very aware of them. This movie was reshot extensively. They actually had already shot the movie for over 50 days before good old Bob Weinstein ordered a bunch of re-shoots and a complete rewrite of the script. They had entire cast
The Nightmare Behind the Scenes: Studio Interference & Reshoots
originally going to be. The editor of the film has since stated that he does have all the cuts of the movie, including Craraven's original work print cut on VHS. There's an excellent Blu-ray put out by Shoutfactory that retains the film's unrated cut, which was officially released, that is infinitely better than the theatrical cut, by the way. At least it has a lot of elements that Craraven wanted to be in the movie. But the original movie that Kevin Williamson wrote and Craraven signed on to direct is nowhere to be seen. And yet, the movie does retain a little bit of mid2000s charm for me. And obviously, a lot of that is definitely nostalgia.
Rock Music, Studio Control, and the Unmistakable 2000s Aesthetic
This is definitely one of the most mid 2000s movies I've ever seen, but you definitely hear that thrown around a lot. What does it actually mean? People love to say that a film reminds them of the 2000s, but they don't exactly know why they're using that as an insult. Well, in this case, it means producers, namely the Weinstein, messing with your film and having way too much control. It means a lot of rock music, perhaps even opening your movie with a musical number by a band. And it also means kind of a queer positive message, huh? Yeah, Williamson snuck that one through. This movie has a character that makes quite a bit of homophobic insults, but later it's revealed that that character is gay. And Jesse Eisenberg is like, "That's great. You do you, man. That's awesome. Be gay." And and that's not common like for 2005, let alone a movie produced by You Know who. The movie also looks pretty great, I have to say. It was shot by Robert McGlaclin, who shot Final Destination: Black Christmas. It's a good-looking movie, although apparently during some re-shoots, Craven wasn't even present. I mean, this is just hearsay by people later after the fact. Who knows? But I I don't even blame him. I mean, they shot this movie for as long as Kubric made eyes wide shut. The movie is also this Hollywood meeting of so many different people. Some who had yet to become famous, some who were on the rise. Random bit parts by Nick Offerman. Scott Beao appearing as himself. Craig Kilbornne, the current host of the Late Late Show at the time, is in the movie as himself. And even though the film is undoubtedly a mess, I mean, all of the creative people involved in the movie, from the director to the writer to the actors, have all talked about that over the years, there are still a lot of good ideas that shine through. Like, you have movies where characters turn into werewolves and then they're in a corporate setting. A really good one is Wolf with Jack Nicholson and he's sitting behind his desk at the office and he realizes that he can hear everybody in the building and smell everybody. This movie has a fun idea where Christina Reachi smells something really good and she's just wandering around trying to figure out what it is. It ends up being somebody with a nose bleed. The exploration of what these powers do for you in your everyday life is always one of my favorite things about genre movies like this. Jesse Eisenberg, who was formerly getting bullied, is able to now literally fight his bully in a school setting. If you've never seen it, you kind of have to. Now, Rick Baker did the werewolf effects in the movie, but legend says that after the re-shoots, a lot of his work is not present in the film. So, who knows if what we're looking at is actually Rick Baker, the man, the myth, the legend behind the best werewolf transformation of all time in American Werewolf in London. What we got is some okay sequences that work kind of well and are still a little bit fun and then some CGI that is definitely 21 years old and some spoilers if you've never seen Cursed are about to happen just so you know if you never seen the movie you're planning on it. Spoiler warning. Judy Greer is having a lot of fun here and she is by far one of my favorite parts of the movie. Once she gets to revel in being a werewolf she is clearly relishing all of it. But when you hear the editors say they were shooting enough for maybe three or even four movies, it's pretty baffling. Because if you look at these transformations, you think to yourself, why can't you do what was done before, these really amazing practical transformations? And I know the answer. The answer is, well, it takes too much time. You're filming these things for a week or two for one scene. Two weeks of filming for a minute of screen time, that's just not possible. And then you go and shoot three or four different movies and you spend way more money anyway. Where's the logic in that? What are you trying to do? Film Michael over here? It's not a biopic. It's Cursed. I also love a great Marco Belromi score. He's made some of my favorite movie scores of all time. I listen to his work all the time. I especially love the flare that he gave to Joshua Jackson's shirt adjustment and when he stands up like he's in the smooth criminal music video. If I appear to be ragging on this movie, I really am not. Like, this movie is not without its charms. I enjoyed watching it tonight a lot. I've seen it over the years many times. I'm aware of the movie's history because I'm a fan. It's very Spider-Man 3 for me where I love that movie in its own way because I'm so aware of what went on behind the scenes and what we got and the things that are there. And this movie has some of that same vibes for me where I'm aware of the screenwriting process and the production and certain elements. And one of the reasons I'm so aware of it is not just because of what's out there, but because
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