LD Entertainment quickly and quietly released The Cursed, a period-piece horror film written and directed by Sean Ellis (Cashback, Anthropoid). It stars Boyd Holbrook (Logan, The Predator), Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone, Sherlock Holmes), Alistair Petrie (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Roxane Duran, and Max Mackintosh.
In The Cursed, a small clan of Roma settlers is slaughtered by a nearby village with the approval of a malicious land baron. Sensing the oncoming danger, the clan casts a set of silver dentures in the shape of wolf’s fangs and marks them for protection. Before being brutally executed, members of the Roma clan curse the village for its hideous acts. Soon after, the village’s children start to have nightmares and seek out the buried silver fangs, unaware that retrieving them will unleash a blood-thirsty beast upon the village.
Starting with the good, the story, and especially the introduction, is just flat-out cool. I’m a sucker for historical fiction and period pieces in horror when done right. Period pieces typically have a built-in risk of boring and slow pacing. The Cursed grasps the audience right from the start, first with flash-forward-style storytelling, then with an incredible shot-from-above scene of the Roma camp being raided. The trailer did a great job of not revealing what type of horror film this would be, so I was immediately all-in within the first few minutes of the film when a silver bullet was held up to the camera. I was about to get a period piece and a werewolf film. Talk about risky. The film mostly paid off.
The film style was extremely well done for the most part. You could tell films like The VVitch (2015) or Crimson Peak (2015) inspired this film, but unfortunately, Sean Ellis’ directing chops aren’t quite yet at the level of Robert Eggers or Guillermo del Toro. That said, it was close, and being close to two of the greatest modern horror directors is nothing to be ashamed of. The filming and sets did a wonderful job of putting me exactly where I wanted to be. Unfortunately, lighting issues made some scenes too dark to navigate as a viewer, and other scenes used weird, shaky camera effects, taking me out of the moment completely.
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The acting was fantastic. The standout is Boyd Holbrook, playing a curious pathologist hellbent on puzzling together a string of brutal “animal attacks” in the village. I’d love to see Holbrook in more lead roles as he’s proven to be an effective protagonist in this and someone you love to hate in Logan. I also enjoyed Kelly Reilly’s performance. She typically crushes it in more boisterous and stern roles like Yellowstone or Sherlock Holmes, but seeing her show off her acting chops in a more subdued and caring role was refreshing and a testament to her talent. I had no issues with any of the acting in this one.
Where many of the special effects in The Cursed were absolutely brutal, I was disappointed in the one thing that makes great werewolf films great…the transformation aspect! The werewolf design was innovative and mostly practical, taking away from the disappointment of not having a full practical transformation. I was mostly confused as to why we didn’t get one. Many werewolf films use the lore of the werewolf bursting out of the human skin. This film gives us this gnarly scene of a cursed human bursting from the innards of a dead werewolf, so I don’t understand the thought process behind leaving out a scene in a werewolf film that every horror fan will be looking forward to.
Regardless of that, The Cursed did most things well. With the lack of marketing behind it, I definitely suggest seeking this one out and giving it a go. The Cursed truly was just a few steps away from being the next great werewolf film.
