Cursed is a 2005 American horror comedy film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, who both collaborated on the Scream film series. The film stars Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg as two orphaned siblings attacked by a werewolf loose in Los Angeles.
Originally planned for 2003, the film took over two more years to be made than originally planned, during which producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein kept asking for reshoots and changes to the plot, re-edited the movie to give a PG-13 rating rather than the original intended R-rating, and fired veteran makeup artist Rick Baker to replace the werewolves he had created with computer-generated ones, even rumored to at one point to hire Disney animator Eric Goldberg to animate an opening sequence for the film. Cursed was released theatrically in the United States on February 25, 2005, by Miramax Films. The film was a box-office bomb and received generally negative reviews from critics; Craven himself was very displeased with the final result.
Plot On a seaside pier in Los Angeles, friends Jenny Tate and Becky Morton talk to fortune-teller Zela. Zela foretells that they will suffer a horrible fate involving a beast that feeds off the moon. However, they do not believe her. That night, after visiting her boyfriend Jake Taylor, Ellie Myers drives her younger brother, 16-year-old Jimmy Myers, home. Jimmy had a run-in with bullies and his crush Brooke.
En route, Jimmy and Ellie collide with an animal and another car. They attempt to rescue the other driver, Becky, but a creature attacks the trio, killing Becky and slashing the siblings. Despite Jimmy's belief that it was a wolf or dog-type animal, the official police report later credits it to a bear or cougar.
The next day at work, Ellie finds herself attracted to the scent of a coworkers blood, but dismisses it. At a party, Ellie gets annoyed that Jenny is flirting with Jake and leaves. Later, while heading to the parking garage, Jenny is chased and killed by a wolf-like creature. Jimmy starts to believe that the creature was a werewolf, sharing his thoughts with a disbelieving Ellie. To ease Jimmy's concerns, she touches a silver picture frame without getting burned.
Jimmy is becoming stronger and more aggressive. A bully named Bo eventually coerces him to join the wrestling team. Jimmy easily defeats three wrestlers, including Bo, and calls Bo out for constantly making gay jokes towards him, saying that Bo himself is repressing his own homosexuality.
Ellie starts to believe the werewolf hypothesis when she meets Zela. Zela mentions the coming full moon and says that the only way to cure Ellie is to end the line of the werewolf who cursed her. Jimmy later holds a silver cake server and gets burned, discovering that the picture frame Ellie touched earlier was actually stainless steel. Bo then comes by to apologize for all his past behavior as well as to confess that he is gay and has feelings for Jimmy. Jimmy rejects him, believing the attraction to be his werewolf pheromones. The siblings' dog Zipper, who has become afraid of his owners, later bites Jimmy; becoming infected with the curse, and goes on a rampage. Jimmy goes to warn Ellie with Bo.
Ellie deduces that Jake is a werewolf, and he confirms it. However, he did not attack her and Jimmy; he was born a werewolf and can control his transformations. When another werewolf attacks the two, Bo and Jimmy try to help, but Bo is knocked out. The werewolf turns back into Joanie, who was cursed after a one-night stand with Jake. She committed all of the previous murders and now wants to kill all potential rivals so Jake will be hers.
When Jake offers to let Joanie kill him to protect Ellie, she refuses, as doing that would break her curse. After knocking him out, Joanie turns into a werewolf and goes after Ellie and Jimmy. The siblings fight her, and when the police arrive, the two draw Joanie out by insulting her. The police open fire and eventually kill her. Jake disappears in the aftermath.
Jimmy and Ellie return to their wrecked home, where they begin transforming. Jake arrives, revealing that, since he was the originator of Joanie's curse, the only way to cure Jimmy and Ellie is for them to kill him. Jake wants to be with Ellie, but also must kill Jimmy so only he remains the alpha male. Jake and Ellie fight, and Jake ends up having the upper hand. Jimmy, now a semi-transformed werewolf joins in the fight and bites Jake. Ellie eventually manages to bite, stab and badly injure Jake with the silver cake server. Using a shovel, she decapitates Jake and breaks the curse on the two siblings and Zipper. Jake's body bursts into flames.
Bo, Brooke, and Zipper arrive at the house. Jimmy kisses Brooke and walks her home along with Bo; he and Jimmy now friends. Ellie is stuck with the clean-up of their mangled house.
Cast
Production
Development The first draft of the script was written by Kevin Williamson in August 2000 and followed the exploits of a New York City serial killer who discovers that his lethal tendencies are due to his lycanthrope nature. Both screenwriters Sean Hood and Tony Gayton did rewrites of Williamson's original script during the development process. Director Wes Craven had previous been attached to direct Bad Moon Rising, a werewolf film for Dimension Films in 1997 about a series of murders in a small West Virginia town, but the film was never made. Dimension Films co-founder Bob Weinstein announced in October 2002 that Cursed would "reinvent the werewolf genre," and that Craven would direct, with the movie being officially released on August 8, 2003. Craven was in the final stages of pre-production with the movie Pulse when Weinstein abruptly pulled the movie from the schedule ten days before shooting and cut through all the slow lanes, getting Cursed off and running. Craven was reportedly not pleased so Weinstein doubled his pay in order for him to do the werewolf film. The director deemed the script too tonally similar to his film Vampire in Brooklyn, but felt pressured by the studio, leading him to ultimately sign on. "Wes and Kevin are a dynamic team, and we are confident that their collaboration will prove to be a winner," Weinstein stated. In December 2002, a press release for the project described Cursed as a "modern, hip twist on the classic werewolf tale" and Dimension Films also announced that Academy Award winning makeup effects designer Rick Baker would be in charge of the overall design of the werewolves. Baker had originally turned down the offer due to the very limited time he had to create all the designs and eventually accepted at the only condition to be able to work without any studio interference.
Casting
The first of the three leads to be cast was 19-year-old Jesse Eisenberg, star of the critically acclaimed indie Roger Dodger, who was announced on March 3, 2003. It was also reported that Kristina Anapau and Judy Greer had joined the cast in supporting roles.
On March 13, 2003, it was reported that Christina Ricci had signed on to play the leading role of Ellie Harper, an associate producer on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, who is attacked by a werewolf after a car accident on Mulholland Drive. The same day, Scott Foley and Omar Epps were also cast as Ellie's boyfriend Kyle and the chief of the animal control department Ben Taft, respectively.
On March 17, 2003, Skeet Ulrich (who previously starred in Craven's Scream as Billy Loomis) joined the cast as Vince Winston, the burnout son of a millionaire who gets bitten and cursed by the beast. Other cast members included Milo Ventimiglia (Bo, a high school bully), James Brolin (Tyler Winston, Vince's estranged billionaire father), Shannon Elizabeth (Becky Morton, a party girl who gets brutally murdered under the Santa Monica Pier), Illeana Douglas (Zela, an atypical fortune teller) and Robert Forster (Detective Harzel). Scott Baio himself along with Corey Feldman were cast as themselves. Pop singer and actress Mandy Moore was cast as Jenny Taylor, the opening victim who gets killed by the werewolf during a costume party sponsored by PETA. A Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp joined the cast in a small, supporting role as a TV reporter and John C. McGinley took part in the production as Jimmy's abusive dad. James Kallahan and Michelle Krusiec rounded out the main cast as Ellie's co-workers Mark and Debbie.
When production shut down and resumed with a new script, new roles were added and others were re-written. Skeet Ulrich was unsatisfied with his character's transformation and chose to drop out of the film. On December 1, 2003, Joshua Jackson was cast as the new male lead (renamed Jack and retooled as Ellie's boyfriend), along with Portia De Rossi (who replaced Illeana Douglas as Zela), Smallville regular Michael Rosenbaum (taking over James Callahan as Ellie's assistant, now named Kyle) and R&B singer Mýa as Jenny (previously played by Mandy Moore). Lance Bass of *NSYNC joined the cast in a cameo appearance as himself. Scott Foley was originally supposed to reprise the role of Kyle (now turned into Ellie's assistant) but ultimately dropped out as well. James Brolin, Robert Forster, Corey Feldman, Omar Epps, Heather Langenkamp and John C. McGinley were all written out from the new version of the script and could not reprise their roles.
Filming Principal photography was supposed to start on January 27, in order to meet the already-locked release date of August 8, 2003, but delays in pre-production forced Dimension Films to push the start date back to mid-March. In late January, a new release date was announced and set on February 4, 2004.
With a budget of $35 million, Cursed commenced shooting in Los Angeles on March 17, 2003, on a scheduled 15-week shoot. The set used for the high school is Torrance High School, the same used for Sunnydale High on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and West Beverly High on Beverly Hills, 90210 and its spin-off 90210. Filming also occurred at Verdugo Hills High School for the scenes involving Jimmy Myers, Jesse Eisenberg's character. Mandy Moore's opening scene was shot over a two-night period on the roof of The Bel Age Hotel in Hollywood. Singer Sheila E. appeared in this scene as herself, playing with her band at the costume ball for PETA. The car accident was shot on Mulholland Drive and some interiors were built inside the L.A. Center Studios. More scenes were filmed at the Santa Monica Pier and in Hollywood Boulevard.
Entertainment Tonight did interviews with Ulrich and Ricci when original version was being filmed, and their report included behind the scenes footage of some scenes from it, like Ulrich's character Vince walking near the pier at night, another scene in same location showing him jumping down on beach and landing on all fours, scene where he and Ricci's character Ellie are running out of her house and another scene after that one where they jump down to the streets which based on the original script, was the beginning of the scene where werewolf chases after them but they get to Vince's limousine and ultimately manage to escape.
In early June 2003, after 54 days of filming and with only about six days left to shoot the final confrontation at the Hollywood Wax Museum, Dimension Films decided to put the movie on hold because top executives at the company were not happy with the film's ending or how the special effects were progressing, specifically the look of the film's lead lupine.
Rick Baker was preparing the final transformation effects when production stopped and asked Weinstein to let his team finish the work in order for it to be ready for the reshoot.