The Curse

Based on a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, The Curse details the horror and chaos that ensues after a meteorite crashes into a small farming community and subsequently transforms its residents into blood-thirsty monsters. It’s a fine premise that’s employed to increasingly unwatchable and flat-out incompetent effect by director David Keith, as the first-time filmmaker, working from David Chaskin’s screenplay, delivers a low-rent, seriously sluggish endeavor that suffers from a whole host of almost impressively inept elements – with the hands-off atmosphere perpetuated and exacerbated by, for example, hopelessly flat visuals, questionable special effects, and a total absence of three-dimensional characters. There’s consequently little doubt that The Curse grows less and less interesting (to put it mildly) as time progresses, and it’s worth noting, as well, that David’s reluctance to fully embrace the less-than-subtle subject matter ensures that the picture fails even as a schlocky horror flick (ie it takes a really, really long time for anything horrific to even occur). The all-hell-breaks-loose third act is, as a result, wholly unable to make that violent, visceral impact for which Keith is obvious striving, with The Curse ultimately cementing its place as an interminable and downright atrocious adaptation that contains few, if any, positive attributes.

1/2* out of ****