The Cursed (2022) Movie Review

hey what’s going on to all my movie fans out there 
and welcome back to my channel movie files elliott  
back again with a brand new movie review and today 
we’re talking about a new french horror film by  
the name of the cursed which actually premiered at 
last year’s sundance and will be making its way to  
the u.s markets on february 18th in theaters got 
a chance to check it out and i’m really excited  
to let you all know what i thought about it and 
let you know if it’s worth checking out in this  
spoiler-free review before we break it all down 
make sure you all are checking me out on all my  
other social media accounts if you’re new to the 
channel we are on the quest of 20 000 subscribers  
so if you want to be a part of this awesome 
community make sure you’re subscribing you’re  
hitting that notification bell and as you can 
see on the screen now if you enjoyed this movie  
review well make sure to give it a thumbs up and 
also share this review to all the horror fans you  
know out there but more importantly what you think 
about the curse have you seen it at last year’s  
sundance you plan on watching and once you’ve 
seen it

what do you think your pros your cons  
your thoughts on the horror elements the story the 
characters performances what were some things that  
didn’t work for you all and since we’re talking 
[ __ ] and we’re looking at the beasts aka  
werewolves what are some of your favorite werewolf 
stories and films that you have seen let’s talk  
about that in the comment section so let’s 
kick this review off with man i have not seen  
a werewolf tale in such a long time and i love the 
kind of new mythos and kind of the mythology that  
we get with the werewolves that we’ll talk about 
here in this review but i want to start things off  
talking about the director sean ellis he does such 
a great job in this film establishing the tone  
and the mood and the aesthetics that he creates 
and the atmosphere is just so dark and so gloomy  
there’s just this sense of like uncomfortableness 
while i was watching this film and as he kind of  
tells this film which i don’t want to give too 
much away about the plot but just giving you a  
brief idea of what to expect this film it takes 
place in kind of the mid-1900s we have this kind  
of well-off family who has his land and there’s 
a a group of gypsies who is their land as their  
heritage their family something happens with the 
gypsies and there’s a curse on this family and  
particularly there’s a beast that the gypsies 
let loose and i’ll just kind of leave it at  
that and again i thought that the director here 
did such a great job of establishing that tone  
the mood just not knowing what’s around the 
corner we’ll get into the beast and the whole  
werewolf elements of the story but i thought 
the direction was really strong very distinct  
in this film and and just performance wise i’ll 
get into it briefly here because i thought that  
most of the performance is a pretty solid cast 
most of the performances were fine it was only  
one person that really kind of stood out to me and 
i’ve been a big fan of her work for a while i’m  
talking about the one and only ellie riley who 
plays the mom in his film and she doesn’t have  
a ton of stuff to do in the first half of the 
film but it’s more so in the second and third  
act where you see what this mother is willing 
to do to protect her family and in particular  
her son that goes missing and what she just 
she’s willing to fight she’s willing to you  
know claw and fight to make sure clawed fight no 
pun intended because it’s a werewolf story but  
she’s willing to do so much to protect her family 
i thought that her performance especially in the  
third act especially the last few minutes 
of the film was just fantastic so again  
most of the performances were solid from our main 
cast but she really kind of stood out to me and i  
really felt her desperation to protect her family 
in this film but going back to the mythos here  
we’re dealing with the beast we’re dealing with 
an unleashed unhinged beast aka werewolf and i  
am a big werewolf fan you know american werewolf 
in london all-time favorite werewolf movie but  
the mythos in this film without dive into it the 
the way that they tell this story and how we all  
know kind of the the elements and the foundations 
of what a traditional werewolf story looks like  
how they become this beast and they they eat off 
the blood and it’s just you know mayhem whenever  
they come across you and it’s typically at night 
right but the scary thing about this film this  
beast is a beast during the day during the night 
and is always looking for a new uh bite to eat  
so i kind of love the mythos without again 
diving too much into how the gypsies kind of  
play into this and how this kind of overtaking 
of the mind and the body and the soul and how  
they become this beast and the aesthetics and the 
look on a particular scene i’m thinking about that  
takes place in the barn was fantastic so again i 
don’t want to give too much away i’m being very  
vague about the actual creature in the mythos on 
it but when you all see this film i thought it  
was pretty unique pretty fresh to something that 
doesn’t really have a lot of originality when you  
see world movies kind of the same song and dance 
but this one plays on it and puts it on his head  
and i really enjoyed the narrative there so get 
into my criticism here i mentioned how i thought  
that most of the cast was you know pretty solid 
i’m not gonna lie the subplots were some of the  
weaker elements to me i think of an incredible 
actor here who’s in this film will holbrook who  
is brought into this situation to help find this 
missing kid and to help track down this bees  
he has this whole other subplot involving his 
past and what happened to his family and they  
try to bring it into the main narrative and it 
just really never worked to me and a lot of the  
other subplots the house workers the main dad 
a lot of that stuff kind of fell flat to me it  
just wasn’t as fleshed out as i would have hoped 
it could have been and then another thing that  
kind of stood out to me a couple of things the 
run time it was a little bit longer tooth there  
weren’t all the pundits along the tooth you 
got to love these puns right it was a little  
bit long for me i didn’t think again goes back 
to those subplots some of those subplots could  
have been completely eliminated but it was almost 
two hours i thought at least 10 to 15 minutes off  
the run time would have been a little bit more 
of a title script and then also i have to mention  
the look of the beast the vfx the the the 
cgi i i could have went i mentioned how  
american world for london is my favorite 
werewolf story the bar is set so high i  
i didn’t expect this film to be on that level 
of just kind of intensity and storytelling but  
practical effects goes a long way and they 
decided to not use practical effects and i  
and i just didn’t there’s a scene i mentioned 
in the barnyard that it was incredible  
but the actual look of the creature didn’t work 
for me so those are kind of the main things that  
come to mind before i give you all my overall 
score and let you know if it’s worth watching  
if you stuck around to this point in review 
i appreciate you before you we get into the  
main discussion of this review make sure you’re 
liking the video sharing it leaving your thoughts  
in the comments and of course subscribing overall 
the curse aesthetically speaking atmosphere was  
there the tone was there it’s very creepy it 
is very brutal i will warn you all it’s a lot  
of blood and i love it because i’m a horror fan 
but all that stuff works there there’s a strong  
performance of our mother character it’s a 
really solid ending but there is some plots  
i felt didn’t come all together it was kind of 
underwhelming underwhelming moments for some of  
the side characters i didn’t like to design the 
creature but overall i take the pros and mix it  
with the cons i’m speaking more highly on this 
film than i am negatively so i’m going to give  
this film the curse a 3.5 out of 5. again it’s 
a french film that came out last year has a very  
limited release so far but it will be available on 
february 18th and if you get the chance to either  
see it in theaters in your local area or maybe 
rent it or stream it i recommend you do and when  
you do let me know what you thought of the film 
again your pros your cons what do you think about  
the design what do you think about the narrative 
and also i share my favorite horror kind of where  
we’ll film what’s yours let’s talk about that in 
the comments if you stuck around to this point in  
video i appreciate you before you leave make sure 
to like share comment subscribe to the channel if  
you haven’t already come join this community we’re 
almost 20 000 subscribers and we’re building such  
a cool awesome fun community here and i want you 
to be a part of it so go ahead and subscribe and  
hit that notification bell as you all can see on 
the screen now hope you enjoyed the review hope  
you’re staying safe subscribe check out my other 
content and we’ll catch you on the next video
you