July 4 Horror -- Cursed and Dead End

[yendi]

Caught two cheap horror flicks on my Tivo yesterday:

Cursed: I went into this one with low expectations (it certainly did not get good reviews), but was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Werewolf flicks in recent years had avoided the satire that other horror subgenres embraced for a while, so it was nice to see one that recognized some of the silliness inherent in the story without going for straight-up parody. The Hollywood satire aspect of the movie was well-done, and the references to other genre flicks (including at least two shout-outs to Craven's best-known creation, Freddy Krueger) were amusing. And hey -- Christina Ricci. Yum. Not a great movie, but enjoyable enough (although a complete waste of Shannon Elizabeth).

Dead End: The real problem with this movie isn't just that it's ludicrously derivative, but that if I mention what it's derivative of, I inherently "spoil" the movie. Suffice to say, there's nothing original to see here. Move along. Not even worth Tivoing, unless you're a really big Ray Wise or Lyn Shaye fan, or you're so unfamiliar with horror motifs that you're still capable of being surprised by level one cliches.

Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

You must've seen the 5-minute version of Cursed with all the stupidity cut out. The version I saw had been enacted by the cast of this film (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154421/).

Actually, I saw the PG-13 theatrical version and you probably saw the gorier 'unrated' version, which might've helped some.

[yendi]

I think it has more to do with having such low expectations for it after seeing what you and everyone else thought about it. It's not great, but I did have fun, and I enjoyed a lot of the jokes.

Plus, I could do the Tivo "frame by frame" thing on the one sorta-dream-sequence Ricci has near the beginning. Lots of wall-crawling and random flies on eyeballs.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

I have a vivid memory of thinking, 'This cannot possibly get any stupider,' and then Scott Baio showed up and I was like 'OMGWTF SCOTT BAIO' and then I think I passed out from the stupid.

[yendi]

But Baio got told onscreen that he was less important that Carrot Top! Which is simultaneously funny, true, and sad.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Indeed very hilarious.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I enjoyed Cursed so much I bought it.

Am I the only one who remembers Fox's short-lived Werewolf series?

[phantom_wolfboy]

You are not.

However, I wish you were.