Cursed (2004)

16% of critics liked it
(91 reviews)
38% of users liked it
(54,382 ratings)

When Nao Shingaki accepted a part-time job at a local convenience store, she never anticipated doing battle with the supernatural, but when the air at the malevolent mini-mart becomes thick with the scent of death, Nao must face her worst fears or lose her soul trying in this nightmarish tale of… More When Nao Shingaki accepted a part-time job at a local convenience store, she never anticipated doing battle with the supernatural, but when the air at the malevolent mini-mart becomes thick with the scent of death, Nao must face her worst fears or lose her soul trying in this nightmarish tale of urban terror from first-time director Yoshihiro Hoshino. As events in the seemingly innocuous convenience store take an ominous turn for the worse, Nao is troubled by both the crippling stench emanating from the backyard and the owner's sadistic glee at the painful injuries sustained by a sales rep who was scouting the store on behalf of a major franchise. When the owner's wife succumbs to a mysterious madness and the vengeful spirits claim the souls of the night-shift clerk, Nao must risk it all if she has any hope of escaping with her life -- and soul -- intact. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 20 min.
Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Genres: Action & Adventure, Horror, Mystery & Suspense

In Theaters: Feb 25, 2005 Wide
On DVD: Jun 21, 2005
Studio: Dimension Films

Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Makes you long for the days when teenage werewolves were beady-eyed, slavering versions of hairy-palm jokes.
Ben Kenigsberg, Village Voice
The scariest thing in the movie is a cameo by Scott Baio.
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
The special effects are particularly lame, and an insult to the proud werewolf tradition of An American Werewolf in London or the even better The Howling.
Peter Howell, Toronto Star
The scariest thing about this movie is the incredible waste of once-vital talent.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
A third-rate effort, with a weak script, cheap-looking effects and no genuine frights.
Gene Seymour, Newsday
How can you not feel affectionate toward a movie that includes a line like, 'I guess there's no such thing as safe sex with a werewolf'?
Beth Pratt, Common Sense Media
Dumb werewolf movie may leave you feeling cursed.
Steve Biodrowski, ESplatter
What can you say about a horror film when its spookiest cast member plays the innocent victim?
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
It really never deserved to be more than a quickie TV-movie on the WB, where it would've aired around Halloween and then faded into oblivion.
Joseph Proimakis, Movies for the Masses
full review in Greek
Kurt Loder, MTV
A procession of silly startlements: a sudden loud sound here, a mysterious hand creeping in there. This isn't scary, it's irritating. And then it's tiresome.
Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central
Let's hope that one day the studios realize that cutting films to make them a bit more kid friendly doesn't always equal a big payday at the box office.
Rick Kisonak, Film Threat
Until this past Friday, the worst werewolf film ever made was, hairy hands down, Mike Nichols' Wolf. Cursed now assumes that dubious distinction and someone is going to have to try very hard to wrestle it away.
Dragan Antulov, Draxblog Movie Reviews
film whose authors require so many excuses doesn't deserve an audience

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Directors C

[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Bringing nothing new to the werewolf film that hasn't been done before, i'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I really loved seeing Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg together. They are a… More
[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Bringing nothing new to the werewolf film that hasn't been done before, i'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I really loved seeing Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg together. They are a terrific acting pair and they are among the most positive aspects of the film. There's also a lot of good jokes and a few scary moments. Although not a classic werewolf film like Lon Chaney Jr's The Wolf Man that helped inspire it, Cursed is the best cheesy movie i've ever seen.
Wahida K

I am actually not really a Christina Ricci fan nor werevolves Movie but this was not Bad.
Nicki M

Not the most exciting horror movie. Pretty dull in the first half, seriously considered switching it off, but decided to stick with it. Can't honestly say I am glad that I did, but it did pick up. The cast is decent, especially Christina Ricci and Judy Greer, (she was… More
Not the most exciting horror movie. Pretty dull in the first half, seriously considered switching it off, but decided to stick with it. Can't honestly say I am glad that I did, but it did pick up. The cast is decent, especially Christina Ricci and Judy Greer, (she was actually pretty funny when she got going). I think this was meant to be funny more than scary, though quite honestly, it falls flat in both directions.
Josh L

Wes Craven's "Scream" take on the Werewolf horror subgenre, but it isn't quite as successful as his spoofing of the slasher genre. The special effects are cheesy and bring attention to themselves at all times, pulling you out of the experience. This makes it harder… More
Wes Craven's "Scream" take on the Werewolf horror subgenre, but it isn't quite as successful as his spoofing of the slasher genre. The special effects are cheesy and bring attention to themselves at all times, pulling you out of the experience. This makes it harder to be scared or care about these characters. Add in lame dialogue and a predictable plot and you have an a recipe for disaster. Thankfully the lively performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Christina Ricci alleviate what could have been a horrendous movie. It has some B movie charms, although the movie runs out of steam way before the end. I kept thinking it was close to ending and more plot points and characters just kept popping up out of nowhere to reveal their twist (kind of like Scream did, only those were good twists that weren't annoying). It got very repetitive and I almost shut it off. It was moderately entertaining for the first half, before all of the repetitiveness and cheesy special effects took over. There's plenty of rumors about studio interference though, so maybe there's a good movie somewhere in Wes Craven's mind that never made it to celluloid. Whatever the case may be, the movie isn't successful and will be remembered as one of the horror masters low points.
Luke B

Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven try and add a little bit of Scream charm to werewolf movies. Unfortunately rumours abound of studio interference. It certainly seems uneven, nervously mixing between comedy and horror. Eisenberg gives a performance he would later perfect for the much… More
Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven try and add a little bit of Scream charm to werewolf movies. Unfortunately rumours abound of studio interference. It certainly seems uneven, nervously mixing between comedy and horror. Eisenberg gives a performance he would later perfect for the much more complete Zombieland. The effects are jarring with neither the CGI nor costume being believable. The twist was OK as I convinced myself the ending would be as predictable as the rest. Some nice jumps, some nice jokes but a disappointing film with a lot of potential.
Conner R

Really bizarre, but enjoyable. It's essentially an even more lighthearted version of American Werewolf. I'd almost say it's a straight comedy in the way that the dialogue went and shear ridiculous circumstances. Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg were both really good… More
Really bizarre, but enjoyable. It's essentially an even more lighthearted version of American Werewolf. I'd almost say it's a straight comedy in the way that the dialogue went and shear ridiculous circumstances. Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg were both really good and fun to see react to being werewolves. Then there's crazy Joshua Jackson and Milo Ventimiglia, who were the true sellers. It's a nice switch from Wes Craven, and it shows that he has a sense of humor.
Jani H

"No, I'm not gay, I'm cursed! - I know it must feel like that sometimes... No, I'm cursed by the Mark of the Beast!" "Cursed" is a fine example of a horror movie that doesn't take itself seriously. In fact the word "horror" is… More
"No, I'm not gay, I'm cursed! - I know it must feel like that sometimes... No, I'm cursed by the Mark of the Beast!" "Cursed" is a fine example of a horror movie that doesn't take itself seriously. In fact the word "horror" is not suitable for this movie. The target audience has probably been people in their mid teens cause there is NOTHING scary or horrific about "Cursed". If you do a movie about werewolves, try to at least do the scenes where they chacge from human to beast in a proper way. In "Cursed", the filmmakers have used cheap looking CGI. The werevolves don't look real, if that's the right word. Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Jimmy, does one of the worst performances I've ever seen on the big screen. Every second of his "acting" was a torture. Christina Ricci? What made her sign the contract for this film? Probably a big paycheck... The only thing that saves "Cursed" from getting the lowest score is the first scene that introduces the werewolf. Besides that, the film is complete rubbish.
Martin B

Was this really only 2005? Seems like it's been much longer since this came out. Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven's attempt to repeat the success of Scream is not a complete failure, but doesn't come close to being as entertaining. I'd say… More
Was this really only 2005? Seems like it's been much longer since this came out. Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven's attempt to repeat the success of Scream is not a complete failure, but doesn't come close to being as entertaining. I'd say it's more on the level of Scream 3, the weakest of the series. When I first saw the film, I considered it pretty bad, but I think that may have just been another case of high expectations and unfairly comparing it to previous films. Having just watched it again, I'd say its a pretty decent horror flick - better than a lot of the crap that comes out these days. It's got some scares, some twists, and plenty of humor. But it's not without its problems. Problem number one: Christina Ricci in the lead. Fine, cast her in some of those quirky independent films. Just keep her out of mainstream popcorn flicks - or at least out of leading roles. She's not a very good actress and she's just kinda goofy looking. But the biggest problem with this film was studio interference. With most of the film completed, the studio demanded drastic changes and reshoots, removing whole characters and storylines, recasting roles, and altering the very plot. We'll probably never get to see the original footage, so it's difficult to say how it could have been. (Don't mistake the "unrated" version for this - it's simply the same "new" version of the film, with tiny reinstated snippets of gore or language that had been cut for a PG-13 rating.)
Jason S

Crap. A crappy werewolf movie that only shows you a fully turned wolf once and it looks like crap. The story is mixed up and the reveal at the end isn't a suprise at all.
Rachel F

I really liked it. Like i've said before, I love anything that has to do with the supernatural and I love Christina Ricci.
Dean !

This looked to be a sure winner. With a young popular cast, directed by Wes Craven and about werewolves what more could you want. Well quite a bit, it has some good moments but overall the plot is very weaker and the SFX not as great as you would expect. It ends up a bit predicatable… More
This looked to be a sure winner. With a young popular cast, directed by Wes Craven and about werewolves what more could you want. Well quite a bit, it has some good moments but overall the plot is very weaker and the SFX not as great as you would expect. It ends up a bit predicatable and a bit camp.
Cindy I

I like monster movies, but this was just too dull. Werewolves are supposed to be scary!
Morgan S

could have been a good werewolf moive if the werewolf dint look like a guy in a garrilla suit haha. good to see christina ricci. i mean come on wes u could have atleast had a good werewolf!. i give them 3 for trying.
Steve B

Worth watching ONLY for the behind-the-scenes segment with Jesse Eisenberg and Greg Nicotero.
Dean M

Good scary of werewolves movie and little funny what the heroine said by searching a female werewolf to the policemen.
Emily A

Ho hum. This movie has its moments, but was all in all underwhelming. I think Christina Ricci has killed her horror movie street cred. As has Wes Craven. I did likethe whole homophobia thing though.
Jacob P

One of my favorite werewolf films.
Duncan R

It's not what I'd call one of Craven's brilliant masterpieces. But it's fun as hell! A big, fat, juicy guilty pleasure that's sadly under appreciated and undervalued as pure, unadulterated entertainment.
Yinalí R

Awesome movie!!!!!
William G

Expected worse. Moments of humor, gore almost make this watchable.