In this mostly pleasant, if unremarkable, entry into the werewolf genre, a Roma curse unleashes a werewolf on the inhabitants of a small village in rural, 19th-Century France. It was originally released at Sundance under the title Eight for Silver and while that isn’t the best title in the world, it’s loads better than “The Cursed” which really has to be the most generic title imaginable for a horror film. In some ways, maybe it fits because this film isn’t really trying to be anything other than a solid entry in an often overlooked horror subgenre.
But it has some things that elevate it. Writer/Director Sean Ellis is also on Cinematography and the film looks absolutely gorgeous with its gloomy woods, candle-lit interiors and dark nights. It has a terrific amount of atmosphere that belies its relatively minor budget. Boyd Holbrook is on hand as a werewolf hunter with a tragic backstory and, while his character is pretty stock, I liked the way he was written and Holbrook has enough charisma to make you okay with some of his thunderingly stupid decisions. Also on hand is the always welcome Kelly Reilly as the wife of the local land baron. And the script wants to, rather surprisingly, make this a movie about class; the Roma curse has been brought down on the land because of the way the local land baron treated a Roma clan that moved into the area, but he’s safe in his fortified castle and it’s mostly the poor residents of the village that are suffering from the werewolf’s violence. That’s . . . genuinely kind of interesting to me.
Best thing in the movie though is an autopsy scene after Holbrook’s character has bagged one of the werewolves. It’s gnarly, fascinating, horrifying and just downright disgusting; and I’m pretty sure the effects in that scene are all, or mostly, practical. ******* astounding scene. All in all, this doesn’t transcend its genre in any way, nor does it really try to, but it provides a werewolf based story with a lot of atmosphere, some good performances, palpable atmosphere and less silliness than you’d think, though the closer we get to the climax, the stupider the decisions get. There’s no post-modern irony or attempts to nod at the sillier elements of the genre; it’s a serious film and it works. 3 stars.
tl;dr – serious-minded, beautifully shot and featuring a couple of great sequences, The Cursed doesn’t transcend its genre, but it’s a solid and entertaining creature feature with lots of atmosphere. 3 stars.