Cursed (PG-13, 2005)

When twenty-something Ellie (Christina Ricci) and her teen brother Jimmy get into a car accident on a dark, winding road, they try to free the other driver of the car (Shannon Elizabeth), only to see her get dragged away by a large wolf. Ellie and Jimmy get scratched by the wolf, but don't think anything of it right away. After all, Ellie is focused on work and her new boyfriend Jake (Joshua Jackson) and Jimmy is busy trying to make it through the horrors of high school, where he is the victim of some bullying boys from the wrestling team. But soon tell-tale signs that Ellie and Jimmy were infected by a werewolf start emerging, and the siblings find themselves fighting the urge to go to the dark side.

It's hard to tell if Cursed is supposed to be a campy, sarcastic film like Scream or a true horror movie. Although it offers funny touches like a Scott Baio cameo, it's not clever and biting enough to be a send-up of horror movies, but it's not scary enough to be a horror movie, either. Basically, it's a just a mess of a movie -- that's the best that can be said about it.

Originally rated R, the film was reshot and edited down to make it PG-13. It appears that a sensible plot and any kind of character development were edited out as well. And they must have run out of money before they hired the special effects team, because the computer-generated werewolves look fake and decidedly not scary. They would have been better off not showing the werewolves at all, because then the anticipation of seeing the beasts would create some real interest and suspense.

Studio: Dimension
Director: Wes Craven
Cast: Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, Shannon Elizabeth
Genre: Horror
Run time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release: February 25, 2005
DVD release: June 21, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: violence, sexual content, crude humor and a drug reference