Blu-ray Review: THE CURSE / THE CURSE II: THE BITE

[section label=”The Movies” anchor=”Movies”]

THE MOVIES

THE CURSE

The life of a farmer can be difficult, especially if that farmer is watering his crops with contaminated “toilet water” that came from the inside of a meteorite that crashed on his property. Farmer Nathan thought life was going was going great with his new cheating wife, empty headed kid, step-kids being smarter than him, and his strict Christian views. Unfortunately, a meteor just had to strike down on his property with no real scientific inspection from anyone for at least ¾ of the movie.

Farmer Nathan then starts noticing his vegetables filled with maggots, diseased cattle, terrible tasting tap water, and his new wife with an infection on her face. Farmer Nathan does what any farmer trying to make a living would do in such a terrible situation. Nothing.

[alert variation=”alert-info”]Did you Know? Italian gore filmmaker Lucio Fulci is credited as the Associate Producer under the name Louis Fulci?[/alert]

The Curse is a bad movie, but the more I think about it, it’s terribly fun bad. I’m not sure what is going on here with actor Malcolm Danare as the son Cyrus (he was also the teen who took a crap on the dashboard of the Plymouth Fury in John Carpenter’s Christine), but this movie has this bizarre fascination with his hairy ass which is seen in close-up at one point in the movie.

The climax involves the stepchildren trying to escape their farmhouse from a diseased Farmer Nathan, Cyrus, and their mother before the house collapses and sinks into the ground. Why is the house sinking? I don’t know. It makes no sense. That’s the best way to describe THE CURSE. It’s total nonsense.. but fun.

CURSE II: THE BITE

Let me quickly tell you that Curse II has nothing to do with the previous movie and that the onscreen title is simply called The Bite. I have a feeling Curse II was tacked on to capitalize on the success (if there was any) of the first movie. In Curse II, a couple named Lisa and Clark get more than what they bargained for in their slithery El Paso road trip from hell. Clark gets bitten on the hand by a radioactive snake, his body starts to change, and absolutely nothing can stop it. Clark’s hand slowly morphs into a snake creature and kills anybody who tries to fuck with him.

Curse II reminds me of David Cronenberg’s The Fly in that the lead character is slowly turning into a creature and has uncontrollable outbursts of violent behavior. The big difference is that this movie is dull, lifeless, and boring. I had absolutely no sympathy for the 2 leading characters. Some moments even brought out some unintentional laughter from me. Every time I hear Lisa yell out Clark’s name it sounds exactly like Beverly D’Angelo yelling out for Clark in the National Lampoon movies. The Curse could pass as a movie so bad that it’s fun, Curse II is just plain bad.

[section label=”Audio/Video” anchor=”AV”]

AUDIO/VIDEO

Both movies are presented with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in a 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio. The Curse has some softness and dark contrast issues but boosted colors and detailed medium shots make up for the flaws. It’s a nice, watchable HD transfer with no major problems.

Curse II is a bit of a different story. A message appears before the movie begins explaining that the only film element available to Shout Factory is a film print. This transfer is dark and muddy with print damage.

Although the image for Curse II is a huge step down from the first movie, it’s still watchable. Both movies offer only an English 2.0 DTS-HD Audio Track. The tracks are identical in quality to my ears. Surprisingly no hiss or pops are present for Curse II despite the print damage. The audio for both movies are pretty good with no major problems.

[section label=”Special Featuress” anchor=”Special Features”]

SPECIAL FEATURES

Only a trailer for the first movie is included.

[section label=”Buy it on Amazon!” anchor=”Amazon”]