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The Cursed
Movie

The Cursed

2021 • Fantasy, Horror, Mystery

Woke Score
6
out of 10

Plot

In the late nineteenth century, brutal land baron Seamus Laurent slaughters a Roma clan, unleashing a curse on his family and village. In the days that follow, the townspeople are plagued by nightmares, Seamus's son Edward goes missing, and a boy is found murdered. The locals suspect a wild animal, but visiting pathologist John McBride warns of a more sinister presence lurking in the woods.

Overall Series Review

The Cursed is a gothic horror film that explicitly reframes the werewolf mythos as an allegory for historical systemic injustice. The central conflict is the brutal massacre of a marginalized Romani clan by a wealthy, white land baron and the subsequent curse unleashed as a supernatural reckoning upon his family and the community. The narrative focuses on how the "sins of the father" are passed down, punishing subsequent generations for the colonial and exploitative greed of the ruling class. The story emphasizes class and ethnic hierarchy, framing the privileged establishment as fundamentally corrupt and their destruction as an act of necessary supernatural justice.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics9/10

The plot centers entirely on a brutal, wealthy, white, male land baron who commits a genocidal act against a marginalized Romani clan over a land dispute. The curse serves as supernatural retribution for the systemic oppression and class-based exploitation carried out by the privileged elite against the ethnic 'other.' The entire narrative exists to lecture on the concept of collective and inherited privilege/guilt, with the white patriarch being the epitome of evil.

Oikophobia9/10

The film indicts the ruling class of 19th-century rural France, representing Western civilization's established power structure, as fundamentally corrupt and genocidal. The ancestral land is literally cursed because of the colonial and exploitative actions of the landowning elite. The narrative explicitly explores themes of 'suppressed guilt over colonialist, exploitive... tendencies among Europe's ruling classes.' The non-Western culture (Romani) is depicted as possessing the righteous spiritual power (the curse) necessary to enact justice upon the home culture.

Feminism3/10

Gender dynamics are secondary to the themes of class and ethnic retribution. The curse itself is cast by an elderly Romani woman, giving a female character the ultimate power of judgment and vengeance. The primary male character, Seamus Laurent, is the villain, and the other main male lead, John McBride, is driven by personal trauma, but there is no explicit 'Mary Sue' or anti-natalist messaging present.

LGBTQ+1/10

No evidence of alternative sexualities, deconstruction of the nuclear family, or gender ideology is present in the plot or character descriptions. The focus remains strictly on a gothic horror framework revolving around an inherited curse and werewolf mythology.

Anti-Theism7/10

The core object of the curse—silver teeth—is fashioned from the coins Judas received for betraying Jesus, a direct attack on a central spiritual motif of the Christian West. The righteous supernatural force (the curse-magic) is non-Christian, serving as a moral arbiter that punishes the spiritual corruption and greed of the Christian establishment elite.