Writer/director Sean Ellis won me over back in 2016 with his underrated WW2 thriller, Anthropoid. That film was a character-driven gem that featured excellent acting, solid storytelling, and a killer final shootout loaded with practical effects. So, when I heard that Ellis’ next movie was going to be a new take on the werewolf mythos, I quickly added it to my queue. Jump a bit into the future and we have The Cursed, a generically titled horror film that tries to be anything but generic in its production. Originally called the much more interesting Eight for Silver, The Cursed is an admirable but flawed attempt by a talented filmmaker to re-imagine a well-worn monster tale.

Despite being mostly set in France circa 1882, The Cursed surprisingly kicks off with a short but bloody sequence at the Somme in WW1. While it’s not exactly clear in the moment why it starts there, it does effectively set the tone for the film in regard to blood and gore. After that, the movie jumps back to the 1880s, where we’re quickly introduced to the four members of the Laurent family: Seamus (Alistair Petrie), his wife Isabelle (Kelly Reilly), their teenage daughter Charlotte (Amelia Crouch), and their younger son Edward (Max Mackintosh). The film dedicates all of about five minutes to establishing these characters before Seamus, who’s evil but never convincingly sold as thus, rides out to eradicate a gypsy clan that’s settled on his land. At this point, I should’ve picked up on this trend of violence over characterization, but it didn’t dawn on me yet.

On one hand, the benefits of jumping right into the bloodshed are notable, as the first act of The Cursed moves rapidly and smacks you in the face with grisly violence. It’s never boring during this first bit, and I even found myself unsettled by the mercilessness presented on screen, meaning that the filmmaking was truly working as intended up to that point. On the other hand, I found myself completely detached from the characters, pondering a few questions that probably aren’t the best for any viewer to ponder during any point of a movie. I thought to myself: Okay, why should I care about this family that I barely know and who carried out such a heinous act? Ah, gypsies and magic, we’re doing this again? Wait, why exactly did the main hero guy come to this area? And most importantly, why is there a French dude named Seamus? Okay, that last one is a joke, but it did pop in my head.

After the gypsy confrontation, a curse is unleashed on the Laurent family and their surrounding community. An element of this curse is that everyone in the area has a similar terrifying dream, one that includes an admittedly nightmarish scarecrow that I never need to see again. It’s presumably because of these dreams that pathologist John McBride (Boyd Holbrook), our main character and hero, is brought in to investigate. It’s at this point that The Cursed starts to drag a bit, as McBride has to acquaint himself with the one-dimensional Laurent family, all the while offering up annoyingly vague answers to their questions. And it’s not like McBride is a font of charisma either, but at least Holbrook does his best with the material he’s given.*

That being said, it’s not long before the horror elements kick back into gear once more, but this time they lack a bit of the intrigue and surprise that they benefited from in the first act. It’s also at this point that many of the characters start doing the requisite, perplexing things that only happen in horror flicks. “Okay, there’s a murderous wolf-creature on the loose, so why don’t we go tend to these vines?”, said no one ever. I didn’t mind the lamb-to-the-slaughter characters at first, but when it kept occurring, even in the third act? Yeah, I expected more from this one.

At the end of the day, though, the main thing The Cursed had to get right was its monster, specifically how it looked and how it was utilized. At first, Sean Ellis clearly, and smartly, took a page out Alien’s book by going with the less-is-more approach. To clarify, I mean that we don’t clearly see the creature for a sizeable chunk of this film, but we do catch glimpses, both of it and the mutilated corpses it leaves in its wake. Through the first half, I was really digging the mystery and suspense surrounding it. Alas, then they showed me more, and I just didn’t like it. Maybe it’s because the shoddy CGI clashed with the otherwise entirely practical shoot up until that point. Or maybe it’s because the film devolved into mindless violence after that. Either way, a different approach would have aided this movie’s clear desire to cut against the grain.**

Speaking of grain, the film grain of the 35mm film used to shoot The Cursed is absolutely perfect. This movie is incredibly gorgeous, relying heavily on natural lighting and expert framing to create visuals that perpetually look like oil paintings. However, it’s not just the cinematography that excels, as the costume and set design are also first-rate. Let’s not forget the action/horror elements, which are almost exclusively done with practical effects. That means loads of spewing blood, life-like severed limbs, and thunderous blanks. If nothing else, this is one of the best-looking and best-directed movies I’ve seen all year, or in a few years actually.***

With that in mind, I must say that the most frustrating thing about The Cursed is how mediocre its characters and story are compared to the mastery of its more technical aspects. Even as I type this review, I’m struggling to recall a single trait that any character exhibited that was particularly original or surprising. McBride is the brave guy, Isabelle the loving mother, Seamus the contemptible father, and everyone else is kind of just there. And as I’ve already pointed out, the story is similarly unmoving, outside its unnerving but flawed first act. While Ellis’ skills as a director are on full display here, his skills as a writer are definitely not.

Even so, I refuse to call The Cursed a misfire, since I think it hits a lot of notes as intended, even if said notes weren’t exactly as compelling as those in the production thought they might be. It’s worth watching mainly as a visually sumptuous experience, with top-notch cinematography, costumes, props, and gore. It’s mainly viscera and visuals with this one, and there’s always an audience for that. This time, however, I’m just not part of it.

If I had to score it, I’d give The Cursed a 6/10.

Notes:

* I like Boyd Holbrook, but he feels miscast to me in this film. His imprecise but commendable English accent notwithstanding, he just never embodied his character. He seemed too 21st century American to play a 19th century Brit.

** Based on interviews I’ve read, it’s clear that Ellis wanted the curse and its monster to be something that imprisons the people plagued by it, rather than something that changes them. This is an interesting concept and certainly a new twist on the werewolf mythos, but I’m just not sure he pulled it off. I noticed and appreciated the attempt, though.

*** There are two scenes that are shot so flawlessly, I have to single them out. The first involves the confrontation between Seamus’ thugs and the gypsy clan. It’s a static camera long-take that must’ve been a nightmare to coordinate and film. The other is an autopsy scene, similar to the one in John Carpenter’s The Thing. Ellis’ autopsy scene might actually be better than Carpenter’s, and that’s all I’ll say about it. Both of these scenes are highly, highly impressive.****

**** I just rewatched both of those scenes (it’s been a while since I wrote this review), and my lord, they’re truly tremendous. For fans of the art of filmmaking, they make The Cursed worth watching, for sure.