.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Remember when Wes Craven's name was synonymous with sheer terror? Remember The Hills Have Eyes, the first Nightmare on Elm Street or even The Serpent and the Rainbow? All were better than average scare fests that all came courtesy of Mr. Craven's twisted mind. Going back to the late 1970's and early 80's, you can bet that if Craven's name was on the poster, you were in for a rockin' ride.

Well, something happened in and around 1985. Wes began to churn out dud after dud including, Deadly Friend (1986), Shocker (1989), The People Under the Stairs (1991) and A Vampire In Brooklyn (1995). In fact, had it not been for the unexplainable success of the Scream trilogy, Wes might have been more of a movie trivia answer alongside Clive Barker rather than someone we are discussing in a column here.

So maybe that is what makes his new venture, namely the new werewolf flick Cursed, that much more..puzzling. Once on the cutting edge of introducing us to new evil franchises, to settle for something as over done as a werewolf just seemed beneath him.

One thing is for certain; Cursed is probably the most apt name for the production on a whole. Most of the film had to be re-shot to 'up the scare quotient' and therefore scenes with the original cast including Skeet Ulrich, Scott Baio and Omar Epps had to be thrown into the cutting room waste bin. Mandy Moore was even once attached to the project way back in its casting day which was long before Bush Jr. even started campaigning for another oval office term.

One thing that is fairly certain is that fellow Scream writer/collaborator Kevin Williamson probably had a lot to do with Craven's decision to try his hand at the formulaic. Once whispered in dark corners, it was believed by a select few that Williamson was the young persons answer to Tarantino. His, I Know What You Did Last Summer and the long running television program Dawson's Creek captured the attention of young teens that seemed to appreciate his writing as being down to earth and realistic depictions of high-schoolers in peril. The Faculty and Teaching Mrs. Tingle soon took care of any future aspirations.

So, some 375 words later, we get to why you clicked on the link in the first place and that is for a review of the film. To be honest, the road traveled to the final product is more interesting than what was on the big screen. The movie follows a brother and sister tandem (played by Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg) who after being attacked by some sort of beast, begin to find themselves acting .strange. Not howl at the moon strange, but rather, waking up in strange places strange. Basically, everything that we have come to expect from a monster that has been played over and over and over again, from Lon Cheney Jr. to Jack Nicholson.

There is more to the story, but not much more. The script could have been written on one side of a Post-It Note leave the 'who is the original werewolf' twist that comes at a point where we don't care enough about anything other than warming up the car to give two howls.

There are some half-decent special effects in the movie, but nothing you can't see in Blade II or Van Helsing for that matter. And after all the writing, re-writing, shooting and re-shooting, you can't help but be disappointed that a seasoned director, a once heralded writer and two plus years couldn't produce more than this dud.