Some say that Wes Craven’s come a long way since his breakthrough film A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. However, after seeing Cursed, it’s clear Craven still has far to go before guaranteeing his position in the horror pantheon.

Cursed seems like an attempt by director Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson to re-create the success of their Scream formula, this time with a werewolf theme. Unfortunately, this film seems neither as fresh nor as revolutionary as the earlier effort. The characters and situations are stereotypical and tired; do we really need to see another bullied teenager sequence? Also, as the characters are eager to point out, werewolf films have a long history in the horror genre. Cursed doesn’t really bring anything new, simply re-working a familiar slasher/mystery framework into a werewolf ‘thriller.’

The werewolf itself is mostly unimpressive and underused, low-rent CGI replacing more expensive physical effects. Apparently the film was shot twice, with half the cast replaced due to scheduling problems; maybe if they didn’t need to hire twice as many actors Craven could’ve afforded a better werewolf (and script).

What had the potential to become the beginning of a new and interesting franchise falls flat on almost every level.