Consider the Halloween 2017 featurette – biggest one so far – now officially kicked off with The Curse. It’s one of those titles that had managed to stay under the radar for me and I had no idea what to expect. I really liked the setting, characters and the whole, believable elephant in the living room family hell setup that prevented the protagonist to seek for help, and as a whole the movie played out like a good Stephen King novel.

It was only afterwards when I read about the movie that I learned the movie is actually and adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Colour Out of Space.

The script is smartly written, giving the main characters solid, well-founded motivations to act the way they do in the given very unexpected situation. Considering the movie was done in the golden era of the Hollywood makeup and prosthetics, the FX work here feels weak, and the transformations which could’ve provided some endless possibilities are handled with a few boils glued on their faces. The other effects like the eery spoiled crop and the disintegrating house are executed exceptionally well.

Although the dragging ending steals a few points from the total score, The Curse is still one of the most positive surprises of the year.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 82%