The Curse

A decent, but unspectacular late 80s cheesy low-budget b-grade horror feature starring Wil Wheaton (not too long after the hit movie "Stand by Me"). The peculiar plot is a very loose adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft short story, and from that the film's pacing can plod about (quite talkie and then there was the family dramas) and throw around some ridiculous and elaborate occurrences. It's the performances that drives this one home and some icky, if tatty make-up FX work latter on (not including some very low-end special effects), but other than that there's not all that much to it. The idea isn't bad, but the execution (outside some well-shot scenes) is sloppy (like the use of slow motion towards the end). A respectable Wheaton makes for an agreeably sympathetic performance and a lively Claude Akins is the opposite as his aggressively headstrong, bible totting step-father. There's good support in the shape of Kathleen Jordon Gregory, Cooper Huckabee, Steve Carlisle and John Schneider. The setting of a remote farm does create a claustrophobic hold, where there's never a sense of feeling secure and surprisingly the night time sequences did draw upon some atmospheric spells. A fruity, small scale Horror/Sci-fi production, which can be a little dull.