Written and directed by Ellis, The Cursed is bar none probably the most distinctive tackle the werewolf subgenre of horror movies that I’ve ever seen. But it’s so way more than that! The plot begins 35 years previous to the movie’s occasions with the thriller of a Capt within the French military in WWI being handled for a number of bullet wounds earlier than transitioning into the previous to inform the story of how a silver bullet is discovered inside this man.
Ellis has crafted with this movie a narrative that stems from the legendary story of the Beast of Gevaudan. An huge “wolf” that was chargeable for slaying so many locals that the military was referred to as in to kill it. A fantasy rendition of this may be seen within the glorious film The Brotherhood of the Wolf by Christopher Gans. Unlike that motion/fantasy/thriller/horror The Cursed is pure gothic horror and thriller. The creators maintain the temper grim and the motion brutal from begin to end. This isn’t any fairy story or in that case extra in step with the unique tales collected by the Brothers Grimm.
Conflict stems from a neighborhood land Baron Seamus Laurent, eradicating a Romani clan from his land with deadly drive, regardless of the gypsies having a good declare to the place they’ve settled. A dying curse is positioned in opposition to those that have wronged them by the use of a set of silver jaws. Coming to the rescue is police pathologist John McBride, who’s summoned by Seamus when his son Edward goes lacking. The curse includes a number of nightmare sequences that plague any residing within the space as each the baron and the land itself have been cursed and Moliere suspects this curse is just like one thing he noticed play out in Gevaudan as he investigated the wolf assaults there.
The lycanthropy on this movie is transmissible by chew, ought to the sufferer survive however appears to have components of a reasonably-like hex to it as a part of the transformation included being cocooned in vines and behaving nearly like a changeling in some methods. It’s a really attention-grabbing little bit of lore Ellis has developed for the movie. I additionally discover the lycanthrope design unsettling because it once more comes throughout as one thing fey in nature but additionally like an alternate evolutionary path for a human being, one thing rising from canids as an alternative of primates. It’s shut sufficient to human to be eerier and much sufficient away to be horrific.
The movie is sumptuously shot with what seems to be pure mild to my eye all through. From the stark mild of day, to dappled shadows within the woods and deep contrasts of Seamus’s manor uncovered solely by flickering candle mild. This is movie at its highest as an artwork in my estimation, with out the necessity for shade grading. The alternative of lenses, aperture and focal size do all of the heavy lifting with out the necessity for processing. Because of this The Cursed is much less like watching a movie and extra like being within the scene.
Ellis paces his movie superbly, he slowly unveils the thriller, letting the stress construct and for each character and story arcs to repay with most influence. You by no means really feel the 113 minute run time as you wait with baited breath to see what is going to occur subsequent, questioning if the curse will likely be fully and tragically fulfilled or if these harmless of the horrible crimes in opposition to the Romani will likely be spared by the efforts of McBride. Production smart this movie may be very grounded in its interval. The garments, structure, props all completely set the stage. In some ways it jogs my memory of the authenticity I skilled whereas watching the film The Witch in 2015 during which the fantastical and the horrific are a working a part of a really lifelike world.
The performances from the solid are stellar and every is suitable to the time and tradition of the setting. Everyone performs their elements with acceptable restraint till the characters’ societal civilites are damaged down by the mounting worry and horror. Everything is performed straight to a tee right here and provides to the constructing dread. Again I really feel like I’m watching folks and never characters.
The Cursed is an distinctive piece of interval horror/drama and shouldn’t be missed.
5 out of 5
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