BAD MOVIE REVIEW: The Curse (1987)

Alright a horror film that really makes you think. The Curse does something that a lot of horror movies don't, scare you with reality. Some films have monsters, others use brutal violence, but this one attacks you with something we use everyday...water.

Yes its true, The Curse is all about contaminating the drinking water. The movie basically goes like this...mysterious glowing orb crashes by farmhouse from space. Some ooey gooey stuff leaks into the ground and into the water supply. Everything and everybody on the farm drinks the water. Now they all go crazy and turn into nasty alien killing machines. Doesn't that just sound like such a great film? Well I thought it was.

The film stars young, early Star Trek TNG star, Wil Wheaton. I honestly thought he was terribly annoying on the TV show but here on the big screen he wasn't too bad. Along side of him is his sister Amy Wheaton who does an equally splendid job. Otherwise there's the hard ass father, the cheating mother, and the annoying brother. The rest of the characters are there to help the plot along. The central focus is on the family itself.

The story is wonderful in so many ways. The film itself is scary because it really makes you think about how hard it would be to get by if indeed your water supply was tainted. It also could be presented as a metaphor for adultery and sinning. Punishment for those that do wrong. As the story progresses the characters act foolishly and do terrible things I.E. cheating, beating on kids, and in the end they get theirs. The innocent ones survive.

Now the ooey gooey part of the story. The majority of the film is just the family but in the last third of the film things start to get a little gross. I love it. Since everything drinks the water all the animals go nuts and attack the humans for no reason. Also all the plants are gross. They look fine on the outside but when you open them up theres all this ooze shit or maggots inside them. Finally the humans start turning. They start out with huge pimples, then mutate into some witch type looking thing, and then finally melting into a gooey puddle. Oh joy.

So what I did hate about the movie was the ending. For me I thought the ending was really weak. I thought there would be more. It started out with the ending first but they never tied it back to that. It just ended. I fucking hate that! I thought there would be more exploration and explanation they were building up to but it just ended. Ok whatever, the film was still enjoyable.

So if you get a chance to watch it its worth it. Its fun and campy if you're into that kinda thing. Theres definite grossness but also something more intellectual about it for those of a higher mind. From my understanding there's a sequel (in name only) which is combined together on DVD. Keep an eye out, for the right price its definately worth having in your collection.