The Cursed

A fine production, the dark visual quality and a well working cast make The Cursed aka Eight for Silver worth your time. The only thing I gotta complain is the running time - 155 minutes, which almost inevitably leads to some lengthy or redundant parts and rather weakens the experience than improving. Why so many directors these days think that they have to make such long running movies (Apocalypse Now directors cut just runs half an hour longer but got massively more story to tell), I don't know, but too many times it is really an unwise choice to do so. Anyway, if you like such different horror pleasures like Sleepy Hollow, The Village, The Thing, The Cursed will give you some entertaining time.

Sean Ellis wrote, directed, and co-produced this gothic horror, along with serving as it's cinematographer. This is 100% the vision of his single creative mind, and I have a tremendous amount of admiration for that, even if not all of it worked for me.

The Cursed is a bizarre, unconventional monster movie. It has a heavy focus on tone and atmosphere with very little regard for establishing mythology. And it's a very refreshing take on the well-worn concept of werewolves.

With this film, Ellis proves himself to be a more than capable director and cinematographer. He crafts a bleak environment in which no one is safe or truly morally just, and he keeps the horrifying creature out of the frame as often as possible so that when the gore does finally come, it's a shocking occurrence.

The visual presentation is far more impressive than the writing, however. Ellis's script certainly isn't bad. It's just overstuffed, biting off a bit more than it can chew. There is an opening sequence that isn't mentioned again until the ending, and even then it feels disconnected from the actual narrative. There is no real reason for it to be here, and it's presence actually takes away from a more ambiguous ending that would have been far creepier.

Additionally, there are quite a lot of characters, and none of them are really fleshed out beyond the positions they hold in society. There is quite a lot going on in this film in its first and final acts, and it could have been streamlined a lot by cutting the fat to make it as lean and suspenseful as the middle portion of this film is.

Still, even with its faults, this is a thoroughly ambitious film that I think really does revitalise the werewolf mythos in a lot of ways, and I really hope that people go and support this film so that we can get more unique visions like this.

I'd rather see unique but flawed movies that allow a creator to have free reign than simple competent movies that don't take risks and feel like studio-approved products.

First 30-40 minutes were good. Kinda expensive production for a horror movie, interesting story, decent acting. Then, i was slowly losing my interest. At the end of the movie i didn't care about what happened to the characters, i just wanted it to end. Something felt off, i can't explain it better because English is not my native language. You can't enjoy a horror movie when you don't care if the characters live or die. Maybe i was not in the right mood, i don't know.

It's definitely not a bad movie, however, it's too long. It should have been at least 15 minutes shorter, there were some pace problems. Not boring though, for the most part of it.

Actors were not so charismatic or appealing except Kelly Reilly. She shines through the movie.

I wanted to like it. CASHBACK (same director, 2006) is one of my favorite movies. I liked THE BROKEN (2008) too.

This, not so much.

Solid horror movie. The story is interesting, the beginning was a bit too much for me to watch, but it laid the foundation for the rest of the movie. There's a few little jumpscares in the beginning but other than that it just builds the scaryness off of the storyline. Overall a good movie, would recommend to watch, but for me the possibility of a rewatch is low.

The cursed revolves around a werewolf and a set of silver teeth buried in a field. Might sound lame, but it actually works. The root of the killings is deeper than just werewolf violence - and the plot keeps interest where run of the mill werewolves fall short.