FILM · 2005 · USA
Cursed
29 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
29 Interesting Facts About Cursed
Interesting Facts (24)
- #001
In a 2014 interview, Judy Greer discussed the film. Greer said: "I don't know why the movie was so terrible. I don't understand it. I thought the script was good. For God's sake, I didn't get it. I don't know who made them get to that point." She goes on to say, "Then we shot the movie for about seven years. I think they said we had four movies' worth of footage. It was a lot of fun but it was very strange. I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't crack it."
- #002
When fans asked editor Patrick Lussier about the film's original cut, he said he still has all three versions that were made: the original unfinished cut with an almost entirely different cast and Rick Baker's werewolf effects; the complete reshot version with KNB's practical werewolf effects and the original ending (the Weinsteins ordered Wes Craven to reshoot a new ending, used in the final theatrical version, in which Jake is revealed as the main villain, and they also changed nearly all the werewolf effects to CGI); and a fully uncut version containing all the practical blood effects, which do not even appear in the official unrated version (such as Jenny's extended elevator death scene or Jake's decapitation). However, the person who owns the rights to the film is doing nothing about the possibility of releasing any of these versions, even though many Wes Craven fans want them.
- #003
Bob Weinstein ordered extensive rewrites and reshoots, which led to roughly 70% of the originally filmed material being discarded. The film's release was pushed from its original target date of 8 August 2003 to its final theatrical release date of 25 February 2005. Delays in production caused scheduling conflicts that required numerous roles to be recast; departing actors included Skeet Ulrich, Mandy Moore, Robert Forster, Omar Epps and Illeana Douglas, while incoming actors included Joshua Jackson, Mya, Portia de Rossi, Michael Rosenbaum and Nick Offerman.
- #004
The footage used in theatrical previews came from an older, largely discarded version of the film. This footage, showing Ellie (Christina Ricci) biting a large chunk out of Jake's (Joshua Jackson) throat, appears in the final cut only as brief flashes during a dream scene. The scene was part of the original R-rated cut before the studio-mandated reshoots and the PG-13 rating.
- #005
In the 2003 principal photography, Skeet Ulrich played Vince Winston, the third lead and love interest who is initially interested in Christina Ricci's character. Ulrich was written out during the 2003-2004 reshoots because major revisions were made that reconceived his character in the script, and rather than recast the role of Vince Winston, the producers eliminated it entirely.
- #006
The original plot focused on three strangers: Ellie Hudson, Vince Winston and Jimmy Myers. A car accident and a werewolf attack brought the characters together. The roles were initially intended for Christina Ricci, Skeet Ulrich and Jesse Eisenberg. Extensive rewrites changed the story to focus on two separate siblings. Skeet Ulrich's character Vince was rewritten and became the character Jake in the final film. The characters Ellie and Jimmy became brother and sister, which changed Ellie's surname from Hudson to Myers.
- #007
Mandy Moore shot her scenes as Jenny before production was halted for script revisions; when filming resumed, Mya replaced her.
- #008
Dimension Films re-edited the film to secure a PG-13 rating for a wider theatrical release, removing the bloody and violent scenes from the version director Wes Craven delivered under his R-rated contract. An unrated cut, running about two minutes longer than the theatrical version, was later released on DVD. Craven expressed public disapproval of the studio's decision, stating that the changes were disrespectful and that the film was "ruined".
- #009
The original script included an exciting scene set in a Hollywood wax museum. After extensive rewrites and numerous reshoots, the finale was moved to a film-themed nightclub. The art department repurposed much of the sets and props from the planned wax museum scenes for the new nightclub setting.
- #010
Before directing this film, director Wes Craven had previously tried to make a werewolf film. In the late 1990s or early 2000s, Craven was working on an action horror film titled "Bad Moon Rising". Based on a script by Scott Rosenberg, the writer of Con Air (1997), the film was to be about a motorcycle gang made up mostly of Vietnam War veterans who are also werewolves attacking a small town after the local citizens begin to stand up to them. Although the film was never made, the story was later adapted into a comic book series.
- #011
Horror reporter Brian Collins examined VHS work prints of director Wes Craven's unfinished original cut and the first reshoot version for Screamfest in July 2021 and judged both versions superior to the final theatrical release.
- #012
Jenny's elevator death scene was much bloodier, originally showing her corpse with its stomach torn open, but even the R-rated DVD version did not include this scene. However, from the time of the film's release, Fangoria's coverage showed a picture of her mangled body and also included extensive details about the film's production problems and its two different versions.
- #013
In the first shoot, the scene featured three strangers brought together by a car accident. The person trapped inside the overturned car was Skeet Ulrich's character.
- #014
The silver wolf-head cane displayed in the club is a tribute to the cane Lon Chaney Jr. used in The Wolf Man (1941).
- #015
The producers initially offered the role of Ellie to Zooey Deschanel, but her commitments to Elf (2003) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) forced the studio to cast Christina Ricci instead.
- #016
During production of the original version, Entertainment Tonight filmed behind-the-scenes interviews with Skeet Ulrich and Christina Ricci, including footage of Vince (Ulrich) walking near the Santa Monica Pier at night, jumping onto the beach and landing on all fours, and both actors running from Ellie's house and leaping into the street during the werewolf chase referenced in the original script. James Brolin played Tyler Winston, Vince's (Skeet Ulrich) billionaire father, whom Vince does not meet in the original version.
- #017
Patrick Lussier discussed Cursed's troubled production in considerable detail in a 2021 YouTube interview. Wes Craven planned a remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 film Pulse and completed the script. Bob Weinstein shelved the Pulse project eight weeks before principal photography and instead asked Craven to direct Cursed. Ray Wright completely rewrote the script for Craven's Pulse. In 2005, Jim Sonzero directed the Pulse remake. Patrick Lussier joined Cursed for the final six days of principal photography, with an initial six-week commitment. Lussier worked on the production for nineteen months. The original version ran about ninety minutes. Scott Baio played Joanie's werewolf ancestor in the planned ending. John C. McGinley played Jimmy's father in the original version. The original version lacks the music and visual effects sequences, including the dog's transformation, Zipper. The theatrical release retains about twelve minutes of the original ninety-minute cut, mostly scenes featuring Jimmy and his school friends. McGinley's scenes are removed from the theatrical release. The production carried out three separate rounds of reshoots lasting forty days, twenty days and ten days respectively. Jesse Eisenberg mentioned the extensive reshoots in a 2019 interview. The reshoots exceeded the combined budgets of Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997). The first reshoot ending depicts Jake confessing his status as the primary werewolf to Ellie and asking her to kill him. Ellie decapitates Jake at the end of the first reshoot. When the severed head hits the ground, it transforms from the agonized pod into human form. Fangoria published photographs of the prosthetic head created for the scene in which Jake is decapitated. Test audiences gave the highest scores to the version featuring Jake's assisted death. The Weinsteins rejected the assisted-death ending. The Weinsteins mandated a revised ending modeled after Scream (1996). The theatrical version reveals Jake as the primary antagonist. Delays in the production required hiring multiple visual effects teams to complete the CGI sequences. Later test screenings of subsequent versions produced progressively lower audience scores.
- #018
An alternative version of the wrestling scene in which Jimmy attacks Bo against the bleachers existed. In it, Jimmy sees his own reflection in Bo's eyes and releases him. This scene can be briefly glimpsed near the end of the trailer.
- #019
Some of the opening scenes on the pier come from the original shoot. They initially included the characters of Skeet Ulrich and Shannon Elizabeth and were later inserted into the film. They were subsequently reshot as the opening, introducing Shannon Elizabeth and Mya. In the scene where Elizabeth calls out to Mya's character, she is actually calling Ulrich's "Vince," dubbed "Jenny."
- #020
In the shot before the crash where the city lights reflect on the car, the lights form a five-pointed star, the Mark of the Beast.
- #021
Miramax initially approached Disney animator Eric Goldberg to direct an animated opening sequence similar to Scooby-Doo, but Goldberg turned the offer down twice. The finished film opens with a Bowling for Soup performance at a seaside carnival.
- #022
Mya injured her leg while filming the parking garage chase scene with the werewolf.
- #023
Wes Craven's only werewolf film parallels Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), another horror film he directed ten years earlier and also his only vampire film.
- #024
At one point in the alternate version of the scene where Jimmy and Bo wrestle, Jimmy pins Bo against the bleachers and growls at him. As he does so, his face somehow takes on a wolf-like shape. When he sees his face reflected in Bo's eyes, he releases him. Although this moment is not in the theatrical cut, it may explain Bo's submissive behavior toward Jimmy in the second half of the film. Bo spends most of the film as his enemy until Jimmy not only beats him in wrestling but also frightens him with super strength and the unspoken threat of harm conveyed by his angry facial expressions.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #025
After fifty-four days of principal photography, production halted when Bob Weinstein ordered the entire script rewritten and extensive reshoots. Illeana Douglas, Heather Langenkamp, Scott Foley, Omar Epps, Robert Forster, James Brolin and Corey Feldman shot scenes for the original version, but the production revision removed all footage from the first shoot and cut their characters from the revised script.
- #026
In February 2022, HelloSidney.com published a gallery of exclusive images from the film's unreleased original version, generally known as the "Craven Cut," showing scenes featuring Skeet Ulrich as Vince Winston, Rick Baker's practical werewolf effects and sequences deleted from the theatrical release. Scenes deleted from the original 2003 version include Vince Winston's attack in the opening sequence and the werewolf bite following the car crash, Ellie at her home during the chase sequence, and Ellie and Vince watching a werewolf crash through glass doors. During the original 2003 production, Entertainment Tonight shot behind-the-scenes footage including scenes with Skeet Ulrich and Christina Ricci at the Santa Monica Pier and outside Ellie's house. Rick Baker created practical werewolf effects and makeup designs for the original version before leaving the production during the 2003 shoot; later reshoots replaced almost all of his practical work with CGI.
- #027
Stunt performer Sophia Crawford doubled for Christina Ricci in some scenes but never got the chance to meet the actress.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #028
Only 90% of the original version was filmed; the only thing missing was the original scripted ending. Although Wes Craven said during shooting of the original version that he was happy with the film, producer Bob Weinstein later changed his mind and ordered the film almost entirely reshot with a new plotline incorporated. Such orders and interference in films were familiar territory for Bob and his brother Harvey. After the major reshoots, which included filming the newly written ending, Weinstein told Craven he did not like it, and another ending was shot in which Jake attacks Ellie and Jimmy at their home, even though it makes no sense in the rest of the film. The Miramax and Weinstein ending was added because they wanted it to be like the ending of Scream (1996), in which the lead's boyfriend is the villain. This was also one of the reasons Skeet Ulrich left the film, since he had already played the boyfriend/villain in Scream.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #029
At the 5 minute 45 second mark, a tribute to Freddy Krueger is visible in the background.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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