The Curse

The adaptation of Lovecraft's story, ending with a rather devastating finale, fully embodies the phrase "what happens in the 80s, stays in the 80s." A cast that smells like hay, with a standout bigoted despot in overalls and his bloated son in a football jersey, ominous music interrupted by an obscure banjo, decent prosthetics, and two genuinely terrifying scenes. The first, shot from a low angle as the father carries his contaminated mother into the cellar, and before that, the root cause of it all: lust and debauchery with a sweaty primate by the winch. I get that dry rolls for breakfast don’t mean a dry lap, but don’t be surprised by divine punishment! Let's admit, without the unhinged Cage, those colors from space somehow lose their vibrancy. (10/08/2022)

A feeble effort. The take-off is dragged-out like the gunge from the meteorite, which falls into the backyard of some unlikable rednecks, who, obviously being affected by some cosmic mutation you would have wished on them from the very beginning. In addition, the rest of the movie plods along and does not really go anywhere, and therefore could not really interest anyone. The finale is really dragged-out as well. Despite the fact that H.P. Lovecraft’s masterpiece is doing all the heavy-lifting here, and if you look carefully, you can also see the name Louis Fulci in the list of the movie’s producers (yes, it is THAT Fulci), it might have appeared that the movie was in good hands, but unfortunately the main creative aspects were left up to amateurs. The screenplay is a product of David Chaskin, who had previously only written the second part of A Nightmare on Elm Street (which I can wholeheartedly assure you was the worst part of the series and a reprehensibly terrible movie), and the movie was directed by the actor David Keith, for whom this was his directorial debut (who was not at all well-known). I will not comment on the wooden performances by the actors. Considering that in 1987 the special effects were so poor, that the wire attached to the meteorite model is clearly visible, is such a big disgrace, as that would have last been excusable in the 1950s. This is a hugely disappointing horror movie in all ways. (04/09/2019)