No, not the Wes Craven werewolf movie, but a Japanese tale which centres on a cursed convenience store that provides not only a range of products for it’s customers but some gruesome deaths too.
When this started, I must admit that despite spoiler filled cover art and an obvious set up, the opening death does catch your attention and then manages to hold your interest via a cool opening sequence with kick ass music.
Nao, our main protagonist works part-time in the local store and has long thought that it had a creepy feel to it. When Ryoko comes into discuss a takeover and do some inventory work before the store is bought over by a bigger company, she begins to witness increased occurrences of possible supernatural origin.
The film starts well and has some good sequences within it’s running time, but I’m afraid that the further into the picture you go the less it entertains, as it begins to fall apart towards the end after a sometimes tense and climatic triple attack sequence.
Aesthetically, the film looks great and is well edited with use of split screen and a great focus pulling effect, and it also has some good visual effects work to boot. The score is similarly good except for these annoying electronic trumpet flourishes that normally play when the creepy store owners appear.
The two lead actresses are likeable and some of the scenes are actually quite creepy, but I’m afraid that there simply isn’t much to the story and that is why it begins to falter, making the audience lose more and more interest at an increasingly rapid rate.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Cursed has it’s moments and for a low budget shot on video film it looks remarkable and has excellent sound and visual effects work contained within. It isn’t as good as ‘Ringu’ or ‘Ju:on’ but it’s still enjoyable and worth a watch.
