Made for TV movies are hard to judge. If it’s made for the BBC, then chances are it’ll be better than most things that make it to the local cinema. If it’s a film found at the tail end section of your Skybox however, then you’re likely to find a more entertaining dramatic tale under your fridge. Singaporean writer/director Esan Sivalingam’s supernatural horror, Curse, meanders hazily between the two, delivering a film that is interesting enough yet expectedly flawed.

Essentially it’s Predator, but with two lady ghosts instead of a big ugly crab-man. Much like John McTiernan’s ’89 classic, a group of soldiers are sent to a jungle in search for another army section that went AWOL. When one of the soldiers accidentally disturbs an unholy gravesite, the vengeful spirits of a native woman and her child who were victimized and murdered over a century ago are released upon the island. Unfortunately, the soldiers don’t have Arnie, Jesse Ventura or Apollo Creed amongst their number, so led by a wealthy socialite and a tough spirited female commander, they race against time in a fight for survival while being mentally tormented by the revenge seeking pair of spirits. As the always-expected list of fatalities clocks up, secrets and mysteries of the island are revealed and things are not as simple as the original legend suggests.

After a brooding prologue and a lovely looking credits sequence there’s a certain comedic vibe once the main film gets going, hardly surprising coming from a film maker with a background in comedy television, but it’s during these parts where the film is probably at its most comfortable despite being billed as a horror. Often in far eastern horror, well for me anyway, any humour is always contrived and plainly not funny. I remember watching the critically lauded Korean film The Host by Joon-ho Bong and found myself wincing at its horrendous jokes and cheap laughs more than the actual scares. It could be a cultural thing, but I find it ill fitting of slapstick comedy to find its way into films of this ilk. Somehow, Curse pulls it off…well, kind of. The humour is placed cleverly (and strictly) in the first act, and serves only as a development of personality rather than a running theme that pops up without reason. As a result, the leading characters are all instantly likeable and generally more rounded, if a little random. The ragtag collection of soldiers are exactly that – random. Varying from a historian to a foot masseuse, brief intros for each solider are spelled out early on and it’s pretty clear that these aren’t your normal tough marine types, but just vulnerable ordinary folk doing some National service. As things proceed however, it all seems a little bit pointless to have delivered individual engrossing back-stories for each character considering their inevitable fate. We are of course left guessing as to who made it out alive, but even this is narrowed down within the opening half an hour as the body count piles up in a frantic and frenzied few minutes.

As it’s a made for TV movie though, it’s fairly evident that cold hard cash was limited and as expected, it does show. It’s got that all too digital look about it. The special effects look like someone whipped them up in an afternoon on their laptop using tutorial websites as a guide to make guns fire without the guns actually firing. Couple this with props that look like they’re from Woolworth’s and any sort of hope that these actors pass off as genuine soldiers is immediately lost. This is no real detriment to the film itself though; horror films are synonymous with low budgets and a certain “cheapness”, so it would be overly harsh to kick up a stink over such little things; this isn’t a Michael Bay production after all. One thing detrimental to the film however, is that it just isn’t scary. Again, made for TV audience and watershed limitations presumably restrict this. So rather than the gory, fright fest of a film it should be, we get more of a kid’s campfire ghost story that’s more suited to 1990s Nickelodeon, ala  Are You Afraid of the Dark? (That show was awesome by the way). It develops into a good story though, and despite the acting being a bit pantomime and jungle setting growing gradually boring through the second act, an unexpected twist really picks things up and I genuinely found myself bound with enthusiasm for the film’s denouement.

While it’s not scary, or particularly astonishing to look at, the twist in its story might just be enough to stop it from being awful. Yes it will feel more at home on SyFy rather than a blockbuster movie channel, but it’s decent enough when compared to other made for TV abominations and might just be the film to ease younger movie-goers into this usually intense genre.

Curse is available to purchase on DVD now via Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curse-DVD-Carl-Ng/dp/B007KZZ7OW)

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