Part 3: Formless Horrors

You know, a lot of people think they can write like Lovecraft.  Reminds me when I was five and I thought I could swim cause I watched a lot of nature shows with scuba divers.  Looked easy, and then I dived into the deep end of the pool.   Luckily my dad was there and he fished me out.  Lesson learned here.

Well, I guess everyone has to take their running jump into the pool.  Most don't invest the money though that even a small film can cost though to do it.  Which brings us to "The Curse."  The Curse is loosely, oh so loosely, based off of Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space." 

This movie stars Wil Wheaton, yes Wesley Crusher who all true trekkies hate.  He's a young boy in a difficult situation.  His momma married, not out of love but for economic security, Claude Akins.  Claude Akins is a farmer and also one of those "screw sparring the rod give me two rods one for each hand" types.  He and his big, fat son make life hell for Wil, but things get worse.  A meteor crashes down on the farm the same night Claude catches his new wife having nookie time with sasquatchy farm hand.  The meteor evaporates leaving slime in the water.  Everyone drinks the water.  Bad things happen.

What sort of bad things?

Oh well first the crops go bad and get filled with bugs and blood.  The cabbages look stuffed with slime.  Chickens get funky, dogs get nasty, and cows blow up with maggots.  Oh and people get first crazy and then real ugly.  I mean real crazy and real ugly. 

The film is a whole lot of dumb fun.  My favorite scene is when momma who has been drinking LOTS of water darns socks into her hand.  Yeah, this is a danger sign.  The film fails though in capturing the dread of the short story and in the nature of the colour.  They keep the events of the story but not the characterization of the beastie.  It's almost more of an environmental threat than a monster.  Still, it is worth a watch.   As a side note after this film there were at least 2 other "Curse" films.  They had nothing to do with the first film, but no one seemed to notice.