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Ebon · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:05 am Post subject: Cursed [Spoilers]

Just got back from seeing Cursed (IMDB.com can give you the cast and crew details, I can't be bothered). Not a bad little film although there were a few problems. Kevin Williamson, gifted as he is, is starting to create his own cliches. The set-piece battle in the kitchen, the absent parents, the evil boyfriend, the multiple killers, all of these are becoming Williamson trademarks. Wes Craven directs, so as is usual for Craven, you had quiet scenes and loud scenes and the loud scenes move along at a fair old pace. The soundtrack is excellent of course (any time a film opens with a Bowling For Soup concert, you're in for an audial treat).

The only problem was the cliches. Williamson's stock in trade is the reinvention of cliches and this film packed in a good number of them (the battle in the hall of mirrors for example). Unlike Scream though (which worked so well because the cliches were subverted), this film treated them entirely seriously. The showdown in the hall of mirrors was begging for someone to make a sarcastic comment. The only time we saw Williamson's self-referential humour was a sub-plot involving a gay teen (which was handled quite well).

One other small matter of note: The repeated use of the pentagram/pentacle as "the mark of the beast". This has been a standard trope of bad horror movies for years and while acknowledging it as a bad stereotype would have made it's use acceptable (another situation that was crying out for someone to make a snarky comment), it's treated seriously throughout which is bound to piss off more than a few pagans.

All in all: I give it a 7. Admittedly, at least one of those is because I have a major jones for Christina Ricci doing her sultry thing.
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