1882 in rural France, a colony finds themselves plagued at night by a shared dream.  A creature, a woman, and fire engulfing them all.  The townspeople demand that the elders, led by Seamus Laurent (Alistair Petrie) do something about these nightmares, but his response with violence to the gypsy tribe nearby, who he blames for these visions, only makes matters worse.  A roving pathologist, John McBride (Boyd Holbrook), having heard stories of the small French town, meets with Seamus to help understand and resolve what is happening, but it may all be too late. 

The Cursed, originally presented as Eight for Silver, is a late-century folk horror film written and directed by Sean Ellis.  The rather bleak film runs for 113 minutes, and while the narrative is a little too thin to support such a runtime, the editing and atmosphere are captivating and help to keep audiences engaged when the narrative action begins to cool. 

The film opens in the midst of the trenches of World War I before jumping back in time 35 years to the film proper.  It was a strange way to open, and for much of the film it seems totally unrelated to the plot, but Ellis does manage to surprise us how it is all connected and not in a way that is too much of a stretch, either, which was nice to see. So often, in an effort to subvert expectations, stories get taken way off the rails, but that is not the case here. It is one of the hallmarks of The Cursed, a film with a pretty straightforward concept and always plays by the rules of the world, but Ellis still imbues an incredible amount of lore into the story without it ever getting convoluted. 

Visually, the film looks almost black and white except for the mud and the blood – of which there is plenty. Ellis also serves and cinematographer, and certainly worked closely with editing duo Yorgos Mavropsaridis and Richard Mettler. It takes some time to get used to the editing style and visuals because The Cursed is a balancing act with quite a few major arcs that it needs to cut between. One of the ways it likes to do this is quickly crosscutting in a macabre montage of sorts between the characters where we see somewhat disembodied shots that, with the knowledge of what has already happened and a sense of where we are currently in the story, we slowly start to glean meaning from the rapid-fire images. It is not all done this way, it starts out very restrained in a wide, almost master shot, of the violence which sets the titular curse into motion. Ellis refuses to cut away as we watch this all play out in a long, punishing take. This shot really sets the mood for the rest of the film, and the restraint and stillness shown here by Ellis inspires confidence in the audience that it will not totally devolve as so many modern creature features do.

As for the acting, Ellis draws out solid performances across the board with his main cast. Holbrook has a difficult role to play as our entry into the world, especially since he does not show up until about a quarter of the way through and the settlers are understandably distant around him. Petrie as the patriarch delivers a strong performance, too, as a man torn between duty and family, with tremendous guilt weighing on his soul and informing his motivations. Opposite him is his wife, Isabelle (Kelly Reilly), and while her role to start with is very much just to protect their children, Charlotte (Amiela Crouch) and Edward (Max Mackintosh), she grows in prominence in the story as the plot unfolds and becomes an integral part of The Cursed. 

Ellis’ werewolf tale has a lot to be admired. The craft shines through as Ellis works to achieve his vision for this story. True, the script does get away from him leading so some second act lag which prevents The Cursed from entering into the annals of truly great folk horror, but the cinematography and the editing are an undeniable treat to watch and make the film a very unique experience. It does not rely on jump scares, but it creates a constantly unsettling atmosphere that keeps us on edge.