The Curse (1987) Trans World Entertainment/Sci-Fi-Horror RT: 90 minutes Rated R (violence, language, gross images and effects) Director: David Keith Screenplay: David Chaskin Music: Franco Micalizzi (as “Frank Micalizzi”) Cinematography: Roberto Forges Davanzati (as “Robert D. Forges”) Release date: September 25, 1987 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Wil Wheaton, Claude Akins, Malcolm Danare, Cooper Huckabee, John Schneider, Amy Wheaton, Steve Carlisle, Kathleen Jordan Gregory, Hope North, Steve Davis. Box Office: $1.9M (US)
Rating: ***
The low-budget horror movie The Curse is based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story “The Colour Out of Space”. I didn’t know this when I saw it opening night at the City Line Theater, the same place I saw Re-Animator (another Lovecraft adaptation) two years earlier. I also didn’t realize one of the producers was Lucio Fulci (under the semi-American pseudonym “Louis Fulci”), the Italian horror maven responsible for City of the Living Dead (aka The Gates of Hell), The Beyond (aka 7 Doors of Death) and The House by the Cemetery (another one I saw at City Line!). He also serves as second unit director here. That explains why The Curse has a vaguely European feel to it.
While I wouldn’t call The Curse a life-changing experience, it definitely kept me entertained that Friday night while I waited for my then-girlfriend JC to get off work. It starts off strong with a seemingly disturbed man being forcefully removed from his home by police. He keeps ranting and raving about something being in the water as they take him away, presumably to a mental hospital. As they drive along, he becomes increasingly agitated by the sights of children playing in a sprinkler, a couple washing their car and a lady drinking from a house. The crazy man is played by John Schneider of The Dukes of Hazzard. His role in the story is explained a little later.
Life on the Crane family farm isn’t a bed of roses for Zack (Wheaton, Stand by Me), the teenage stepson of devoutly religious Nathan (Akins, aka Sheriff Lobo), a pious, Bible-quoting SOB struggling to stay afloat financially as the days of the family farm draw to close. That’s according to Charlie (Carlisle), a local realtor interested in buying his land so he can sell it for a profit in anticipation of a major development deal. Nathan refuses his offer, claiming that God will see him and his family through this rough patch. In retrospect, he should have taken the money.
One night, a large glowing meteorite falls from the sky and crash lands on the property. Nobody knows what to make of it, not even the town doctor Forbes (Huckabee, The Funhouse). Eventually, it dissolves and seeps into the soil. That’s when the crapstorm really begins. The bountiful harvest it yields turns out to be rotten inside. The animals become violent. The youngest, daughter Alice (Wil’s baby sister Amy), is attacked by the chickens. The worst is reserved for the wife and mother Frances (Gregory). Large boils grow on her face and she goes insane. Nathan, refusing to acknowledge anything’s wrong, asserts that God is punishing her for her infidelity with a farm hand.
Zack is the only one in the family that knows what’s going on, but his stepdad would rather smack him around than listen to one word he has to say. In addition, he has to deal with constantly being bullied by his dimwitted older stepbrother Cyrus (Danare, Christine). His life is more like the stuff that comprises the pile Cyrus pushes him into in an early scene.
Meanwhile, Charlie starts kissing up to a representative of the Tennessee Valley Authority that’s come to town to survey the area for the proposed development deal. Guess what? It’s the same crazy dude we met in the first scene. Charlie tries to keep him away from the Crane place, but we know he’ll eventually find his way there. It’s just as likely he’ll have a violent run-in with Frances followed by a hostile encounter with Nathan. Would you care to place a bet on whether Nathan will be affected by the water made poisonous by an unknown element?
So let’s talk about that most important aspect of B-movie horrors, the YUCK factor. Directed by actor David Keith (Firestarter), The Curse has plenty of cool/cheesy gross effects. There’s less gore than you’d expect from a production involving Lucio Fulci. It’s still pretty gruesome though. It has a great deal of slime, ooze, pus, maggots and festering boils on people’s faces. It also has an exploding cow. We mustn’t forget the crazy chickens that do a real number on the little girl’s face and feet. It gets really crazy in its final 20 minutes with Nathan and Cyrus transformed into deformed monsters and the farmhouse shaking and collapsing while Zack and Amy run for their lives.
Akins turns in a wildly OTT performance as the Crane family patriarch, a sanctimonious a**hole who refuses his wife’s sexual advances because it goes against what it says in the Bible about the husband calling the shots in this area. It’s no wonder she sneaks out to screw the farm hand, a fellow hairy enough to be a member of the Bigfoot family. Schneider has some good OTT moments as well. Carlisle gnaws at the scenery as the greedy real estate guy. Wil does okay as the young protagonist. Sister Amy is a little better as the little sister, an innocent in the midst of otherworldly evil. Danare provides a smidge of comic relief as the dumb, fat brother who reminds one of a mentally challenged pig.
As is the case with most cheap B-movie horrors, The Curse is as far from perfect as L.A. is from NYC. Its flaws include poor pacing, disjointed plotting, continuity errors and big gaping holes in the narrative (where did farm hand Bigfoot go?). It’s definitely NOT what I’d call a horror classic. HOWEVER, it’s fun in the right frame of mind. It’s double fun if you recall when such movies played at theaters. Me, I appreciate any movie where a bullying victim hurts or kills his tormentor(s). In any event, I really dig The Curse. What can I say? I’m fairly forgiving when it comes to movies of its type.
