The Cursed (Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly, Alistair Petrie)

[Himmel]

Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly, and Alistair Petrie are set to star in Eight For Silver, a period piece written and directed by Sean Ellis. LD Entertainment is behind the film, which is slated to begin filming this month in France

Set in the countryside of France, the 19th-century horror pic follows John McBride (Holbrook), a pathologist assigned to determine if the body of a 14-year-old boy found in the woods is the work of a man or a beast. McBride is then welcomed as a guest into the family home of a local wealthy landowner, Seamus Laurent (Petrie), and his wife Isabelle (Reilly), who share that their own son, a friend of the victim, has been missing for two weeks. Distraught and determined to keep her daughter safe, Isabelle finds comfort in the arrival of John while he is forced to confront the horrors of his own dark past.

Deadline

.

[Cremildo]

This is getting good reviews.

[Himmel]

http://youtu.be/xWw4AKY5NGk

[BlueRagtop]

I saw this a few nights ago at the virtual Sundance Film Festival.

I really liked it, but I think it might be very divisive. Though it uses some traditional werewolf lore -- Roma curses, transformations, silver bullets -- it puts its own spin on them. Special effects are good, and there is some effective violence. Not slow, but deliberately paced and quite impressive visually (if Gothic gloom & foggy vistas are your thing). At times, it felt like a Hammer Horror film as directed by Terrence Malick.

[MazeRunner]

So a wide theatrical release in 2 weeks and barely any promo? BoxOfficeMojo doesn't even have this on their calendar.

[MikeScott]

At least the trailer was with most prints of Scream. That was good exposure. I'm sure there will be some TV spots soon. Unless they just focus mostly on online ads like many smaller movies do. Hopefully the trailer is with some of the other movies opening before this.

[brooks101189]

Originally Posted by BlueRagtop

I saw this a few nights ago at the virtual Sundance Film Festival.

I really liked it, but I think it might be very divisive. Though it uses some traditional werewolf lore -- Roma curses, transformations, silver bullets -- it puts its own spin on them. Special effects are good, and there is some effective violence. Not slow, but deliberately paced and quite impressive visually (if Gothic gloom & foggy vistas are your thing). At times, it felt like a Hammer Horror film as directed by Terrence Malick.

How does the werewolf look?

[acroyear2]

Perhaps the thread's title could be updated to reflect the movie's new name? This could bring more traffic after people see this movie released wider this weekend (as I intend to do).

[BloodshotUSA]

Originally Posted by MazeRunner

So a wide theatrical release in 2 weeks and barely any promo? BoxOfficeMojo doesn't even have this on their calendar.

Maybe they are going to delay it

[MazeRunner]

Originally Posted by BloodshotUSA

Maybe they are going to delay it

It's already on AMC and other websites to buy tickets lmao.

[BloodshotUSA]

Originally Posted by MazeRunner

It's already on AMC and other websites to buy tickets lmao.

Then they are putting it out to fail unfortunately

[The Great Owl]

Four stars

The werewolf sub-genre has always had a bumpy ride in horror cinema because of its inherent reliance on familiar tropes. Ever so often, however, it is given a new set of fangs by innovative storytellers who think outside the box.

The 2021 feature, The Cursed, written and directed by Sean Ellis, initially surfaced at the Sundance Film Festival under the title, Eight for Silver, before being overhauled and released to U.S. theaters the following year. The end result looks spectacular, taking me back to the foggy moors of the old classics from Hammer Studios and Amicus Productions, so much so that I keep expecting to see Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee show up on the scene. Ellis endows this one with an added bite by way of intensely creepy body horror imagery and multilayered subtext concerning the mistreatment of indigenous cultures. When all else fails, of course, a ghostly scarecrow does the trick.

Alistair Petrie shines as a land baron whose brutal cleansing of gypsies from his 19th century French estate causes his sins to be revisited upon his own children. Boyd Holbrook steps into Van Helsing territory as a pathologist who has his own reasons for pursuing the unspeakable evil that preys upon those who venture out alone into the dismal landscapes.

I have admired Kelly Reilly since seeing her in the supremely sadistic 2006 horror outing, Eden Lake, and I am glad that she has fared well in mainstream roles since then, most recently in the television series, Yellowstone. She makes an adept return to scary movie terrain here as the baron's wife, a part that benefits from her ability to convey trauma with subtlety.

The Cursed does not always hit the mark with a silver bullet, but any minor missteps (often in the form of digital effects), are more than redeemed by the fact that it reminds me of the off-kilter relics from across the pond that would sometimes show up as Elvira's Movie Macabre episodes during my youth.

[BluBonnet]

This is a pretty good and relatively high-minded horror flick, but I would have to warn folks that it practically redefines "slow burning" - I didn't go in expecting a fast-paced movie, but it does decidedly move at a leisurely pace for most of its running time.

Also, the second February release to open with a segment set in the trenches of WW1. What an amazing coincidence!

[MazeRunner]

Saw this today and loved it. Yes, it's a bit slow here and there but it's well directed and has beautiful cinematography. Oh, and Boyd Holbrook who is gorgeous.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

This is a pretty good and relatively high-minded horror flick, but I would have to warn folks that it practically redefines "slow burning" - I didn't go in expecting a fast-paced movie, but it does decidedly move at a leisurely pace for most of its running time.

Also, the second February release to open with a segment set in the trenches of WW1. What an amazing coincidence!

I saw this over the weekend with Dog & Uncharted. And thought the same thing.

[BluCollector13]

Got out of it a half hour ago and admittedly didn't find it slow paced at all. But at the same time, I was on pins and needles from the dread, so perhaps that was why.

[unberechenbar]

Just got back from seeing this. It was great! I'm glad I went into it blind. Tons of atmosphere and quite brutal and bleak. It was also the best-sounding audio mix I've heard in a theater by far. I'm usually not really impressed by the audio in a theater but this movie had quite a wide soundstage with sound often moving from the front to the back of the room and even circling behind. It was quite easy to tell when someone was moving around in the house offscreen and it made it more scary when there was a monster nearby. Seeing that it was mixed in Dolby Atmos makes me wonder how impressive that mix must be. There was some not-so-great CGI but I really liked how the story didn't go the way I was expecting. I did have one question though:

[Show spoiler]Did the brother die not from his wounds but because the doctor pulled out the silver bullet in him?

It was also nice that there was some film grain visible.

It's definitely been a while since I've seen a horror movie this good. I think the last one was The Conjuring 2.

[s2mikey]

Looks like it might have the same feel as The VVitch which I really liked. Hmmmm. I think I need to see this.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

Just got back from seeing this. It was great! I'm glad I went into it blind. Tons of atmosphere and quite brutal and bleak. It was also the best-sounding audio mix I've heard in a theater by far. I'm usually not really impressed by the audio in a theater but this movie had quite a wide soundstage with sound often moving from the front to the back of the room and even circling behind. It was quite easy to tell when someone was moving around in the house offscreen and it made it more scary when there was a monster nearby. Seeing that it was mixed in Dolby Atmos makes me wonder how impressive that mix must be. There was some not-so-great CGI but I really liked how the story didn't go the way I was expecting. I did have one question though:

[Show spoiler]Did the brother die not from his wounds but because the doctor pulled out the silver bullet in him?

It was also nice that there was some film grain visible.

It's definitely been a while since I've seen a horror movie this good. I think the last one was The Conjuring 2.

for starters, the audio mix is outstanding, it was mixed in Dolby Atmos but even downfolded, remixed to 5.1 it's still stellar.

As to the film grain, there should be some as it was filmed on 35mm film stock.

To the film itself, I went in on it completely blind, I don't recall seeing a trailer for this, and came away thoroughly impressed - I'm really glad I did not miss this in the theatre. I pretty much non-react to jump scares I've become accumulated to that horror film aspect, but here, there was one, where I lost it and nearly choked on my popcorn.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Looks like it might have the same feel as The VVitch which I really liked. Hmmmm. I think I need to see this.

oh it definitely has The VVitch feel and look - recommended!!