The Curse / Curse II: The Bite [Blu-ray]

Scream Factory brings another double feature bluray of two somewhat obscure horror films in the form of "The Curse" (1987) and the in name only sequel "Curse II: The Bite" (1989). Fans of 80's horror should have a lot of fun with this particular pairing though the second film is the better of the two."The Curse" marked the directorial debut of actor David Keith (Firestarter) and is about the chaos which ensues after a meteor crashes on a family's dairy farm contaminating all plants and animals on their property. The script is an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story "The Colour Out of Space" and features such notable actors in the cast such as Claude Akins, Wil Wheaton, and John Schneider. While not a particularly good film, it does have some nice creepy moments here and there but suffers from uneven pacing, some bad acting and amateurish directorial choices that keep it from being an 80's horror classic.The effects work which was supervised by the late & great Lucio Fulci (who also served as a producer on the film) are pretty good considering the small budget. It is still a lot of fun though to watch if you are in the right frame of mind and runs a lean 90 minutes.The real reason though to add this bluray to your collection though is "Curse II: The Bite" which has nothing at all to do with the first film. The title card on the film even only says The Bite which is the film's true title. I am not sure if the first film was deemed a success back in the day to the extent that they should make this an in name only sequel but whatever. The plot involves a young man and his girlfriend on a trip in which they unknowingly take a shortcut through an abandoned nuclear testing site teaming with poisonous snakes. While changing a flat tire, one of those snakes sneaks into their car and eventually bites the male lead who proceeds to gradually morph into a crazy looking snake creature. The crazy gore effects in the film were done by horror legend Screaming Mad George and are truly a sight to see particularly in the bonkers third act. While the film could have used a bit of tightening up here and there in the first two acts, it is still a lot of crazy gory fun and a good take on body horror which features some truly disgusting imagery. The acting is decent and appropriately tongue in cheek. Two notable cast members include Jamie Farr and Bo Svenson. It runs a tight 97 minutes and doesn't overstay its welcome."The Curse" features a very nice looking transfer from the original camera negative in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. After seeing this film for years often in cropped and faded transfers, watching it on this bluray is like seeing it again for the first time. Detail is superb and no digital scrubbing appears to be done so it retains a nice filmic grain texture.A disclaimer from Scream Factory at the start of "Curse II: The Bite" states that the only available element in MGM's vault was a film print. While also presented in 2.35:1 widescreen, the colors are noticeably faded compared to the first film and features nowhere the level of fine detail as well. It suffers from some black crush in dark scenes. All things considered though it does still look decent and better than all prior DVD releases. The film print used was thankfully in good shape so fans should still be pleased.Audio for each film is featured in lossless 2 channel stereo and the only extra is a trailer for the first film.While the fact that the original camera negative for the second film could not be found is unfortunate, Scream Factory still did another nice job with this double feature bluray. The lack of extras is disappointing but fans should pick this up for the second film especially without question.

THE CURSEWil Wheaton lives on an isolated farm with his religious fanatic step dad. One night, a meteor or something crashes on the lands. It glows sometimes and what the thing really is isn't ever really explained. It sits there and does nothing at first, but then it oozes something that contaminates the farm animals and food supply. The animals are infected with the chickens attacking a young girl and a cow is infested with maggots just like the apples. Then the water tastes funny. The first hour is mostly a build up with the final half hour or so showing the family members half mutate and go insane. There isn't a body count or extreme gore, and some may think it's a slow film. However, I had no problems watching it and thought it was an 80s classic. The scenery is nice throughout the entire thing because this farmland is the setting for the film. It's a really good late night or rainy day flick because of the slow build up to a climax that I thought was really good.The quality on the disc is great.CURSE 2This was cut for an R rating when it was released back in the late 80s. Despite what it says on the case, this is the fully uncut version. I recorded the R rated version on cable or pay per view back then on VHS, and they cut a lot out of some of the gore scenes. Today it would just get an R. This one has a guy getting bitten by a radioactive snake. He's with his girlfriend traveling out in the middle of nowhere and runs over a horde of snakes in the road. He stops to get his tire fixed and this old guy who owns the gas station is killed by his mutated dog after they leave. Then that guy gets bitten and his arm slowly becomes a giant monster snake while he begins to go insane. The snake arm likes to attack and shove itself down peoples mouths. This doesn't have the scenery like the first CURSE, but it delivers some really nice gore FX. It doesn't have a huge body count, but the climax when the guy is vomiting snakes and falls apart has some excellent FX work. The onscreen title is THE BITE, and it was probably just called CURSE 2 before it was released to just cash in. Because it isn't loaded with action or violence, some may think it's slow in some parts. I thought it was a great late 80s classic.There is a message before the film starts that only a film print was available. However, I thought it looked really good. It doesn't look as good as the other one, but it still looks fine.

Well, if you aren't familiar with H.P. Lovecraft, this story may seem a bit odd. It was, in fact, based on "The Colour from Outer Space", which was a fine Lovecraft story concerning interstellar visitation by a creature unlike anything that exists on Earth. The movie, while rather low-budget, is nonetheless an interesting interpretation of the story, with plenty of slime, bugs, goo, glop and gore to satisfy seekers of horror. This is actually a better example of low budget horror in my opinion, and has genuinely disturbing moments, along with a few of the sillier ones you'd expect from a movie of this budget level....Still, if you know any rabid Star Trek: The Next Generation fans who have the hots for Wil Wheaton, this is one of his better cinematic offerings, in my opinion. Worth checking out!

This movie has so many things going wrong it's a challenge to begin listing them. First, the HPL story was about an alien, who looked like a meteor, crashing into a farmer's well. The alien starts sucking the lifeforce from things and causes some mutations. Eventually, it gets enough energy etc. to shoot itself back into space.In this movie, a giant meteor crashes on a farmer's land but doesn't make much of a crater. I like the scene of it crashing since you can clearly see the arm holding the glowing ball. Anyway, the meteor melts (!) and contaminates the water shed. This causes mutations in people, animals and plants who drink the water. There are some gross scenes and then some really gross scenes.Stuff happens, very slowly, and none of the characters are particularly interesting or otherwise. It basically just ends. The opening scenes, "Don't drink the water", don't tie with the ending...go figure. Just a mess of a film on many levels and certainly not HPL. Avoid

loved it blast from the passed

The quality is perfect! Very happy! The movie itself to me is very entertaining and it's an older movie so as per usual has a slower pace than movies these days. Two thumbs up!

amazing pack of two great horrors.. if you hate snakes this aint for you.. curse two the bite

excellent

Thank you