The Cursed is a horror movie released by LD Entertainment. The movie has a political message associated with it therefore it comes under more scrutiny for its accuracy than a normal movie would. A normal movie without a political message is meant to be perceived as entertainment, so it would have more creative license since it isn’t meant to be taken seriously. But a movie such as The Cursed has a political message regarding a modern concept. Specifically, “white guilt”. And another theme which is a bit older, “sins of the father unto the son”. So, since this movie has a serious message, it must be accurate because people will be taking it seriously. But I found a couple of significant inaccuracies present within the film.
The movie is about a French Estate which attacks a group of gypsies living on land which is supposedly theirs. The French Estate massacres the gypsies living there and uses a couple of scare tactics to prevent their return. They hew the hands and feet of one of them, hangs them up as a scarecrow, and bury his wife below him. The gypsies also made a silver jaw which the children dream of. After this massacre the children begin having nightmares of the scarecrow and find out where the jaw is. After one of the children digs up the jaw they start getting hunted by bald, pale, wolves. The parents of the children are concerned so they call in an investigator to help them with the issue. The investigator doesn’t do much except lay out some traps and say it could be like a similar situation the French army dealt with previously. The wolves take the children, then start hunting the parents as well. They are eventually all huddle within the church. And the mother thinking her son is outside opens the door. She is then killed, and her son Edward is released from the hound. After that her son fights in WW1 and dies.
The movie takes place in the late 19th century. And by late it couldn’t have taken place before the 1880s or Edward would have been too old to fight in WW1. But they are using the wrong guns. They are using flintlock rifles. Percussion loading techniques would be significantly more common during this timer period. So essentially, we should have seen repeaters, revolvers, and pistols being used over flintlocks.
The more egregious inaccuracy is their use of the Bible to support their theme of “sins of the father unto the son”. Their use of Ezekiel 22:22 is completely out of context, and to the average viewer who hasn’t read the chapter would seem legitimate. The verse goes “As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you.”. To a simpleton it would appear to relate to how the gypsies previously melted silver down and turned it into a jaw and now God is explicitly on their side. So, God is punishing the French estate, their children, for the sins of their fathers. That isn’t what the chapter is about at all. And the verse is taken completely out of context. The chapter is long and complex which I find difficult to accurately summarize in this article. So, I recommend that you read the chapter itself. But the chapter certainly doesn’t support any idea of white guilt or sins of the father unto the son.