The Curse (1987)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
A meteorite crashes into a Tennessee farmer's land but everyone believes there's no issue. Except for the son Zach (Wil Wheaton) who believes that the slime coming out of the thing is going to cause an issue. Sure enough, before long the farm animals are acting funny, the fruit is sour and soon his family begin changing into mutants.
THE CURSE is an extremely bizarre little movie on many levels. For starters, some of Lucio Fulci's crew members worked on the picture and you can tell that the slime, gore and creatures are 100% Italian. They just have an Italian movie feel to them and anyone who are fans of those types of movies will pick up on it. The film is somewhat of a throwback to the sci-fi films of the 1950s when kids would witness something yet no adults will believe them. It also throws in the radioactive movies from the 1970s like THE FOOD OF THE GODS.
So is THE CURSE a good movie? It almost is. I must say that I was shocked by how much I liked it but there is one major issue with the film and that's the fact that so many of the characters are so damn stupid. I mean, I understand people overlooking a few of the minor incidents that happen yet when people start turning into murderous mutants, I think it's time you get on the band wagon and feel some concern. The main farmer is a strict religious guy and this made for some good scenes with his stepson but for the most part I couldn't help but grow frustrated and want to scream at the film, which I'm sure many people did back when it was in theaters.
I thought David Keith (AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN) did a nice job in his first directing job and I thought he handled the characters quite well. This is especially true early on when he introduces us to everyone. Once the gore happens he handles that nicely as well and there's a nice flow to the picture. I enjoyed all of the main performances in the film and especially Wheaton, Claude Akins, Malcolm Danare and Kathleen Jordon Gregory as the mother.
THE CURSE has a lot of oozing creatures and other forms of Italian trash and I thought it all looked quite well. Look, this isn't a masterpiece or even a good film. It's not a smart one either. It's basically a low-budget horror film that actually remains entertaining even with its flaws.
