The Cursed (previously known as Eight For Silver) is writer/director Sean Ellis’ attempt at “reinventing” the werewolf genre, and while he doesn’t quite reinvent it, he does offer an interesting and different take on the curse and transformation.

The story takes place in late 19th-century France and set in a rural village, where a greedy land baron (Alistair Petrie) steals the land and viciously murders a family of “gypsies,” who manage to curse the baron before their deaths. Years later, the baron’s family and the townspeople find themselves scared for their lives when a mysterious beast starts disappearing the local children. Meanwhile, a visiting pathologist (Boyd Holbrook) is hired to help catch the beast before more people turn up dead or missing.

As far as werewolf movies go, the storyline for this one is pretty standard and isn’t really anything we haven’t already seen before. However, I do like the period setting and the overall look and style of the movie. On that note, the look of the werewolf is somewhat unique, but it’s the transformation and lore behind it that really stands out. The transformation is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before and I’ve seen quite a few werewolf movies over the years. The fact that Ellis tried to do something different and managed to pull it off gives the movie some positive points from me.

Also being a werewolf flick you’ve gotta have some decent gore and luckily, we get a nice number of mangled bodies and severed limbs, especially towards the end. Sadly, not all of it is practical and the reliance on CGI in some scenes (specifically when it came to the werewolf) was a bit distracting at times. The movie is also a little longer than it needed to be and you really feel it in some of the early bits and the mid-mark. In fact, it's not until Holbrook’s character officially joins the hunt that things get really interesting.

The movie ultimately doesn’t offer much new story wise, but manages to make up for that in other areas, specifically the look/period setting, the solid performances, the dark and foreboding atmosphere, and the unique background and transformation of the werewolf, which definitely makes it stand above other recent genre efforts.