Grade: D-
Synopsis: A man (Oliver Reed) is born cursed with the sign of the werewolf.
The Curse of the Werewolf is one of those movies that make you wonder what the filmmakers were thinking. Oliver Reed has a lot of charisma and looks great in the werewolf makeup, but he doesn’t even show up until the halfway point. And the actual werewolf doesn’t really show up until the movie is two-thirds over! Instead, the movie wastes a lot of time setting up the back-story behind Reed’s character, back-story that could have easily been reduced to a paragraph of opening text. Indeed, it’s no wonder the movie flopped, but watching it, I can’t help but wonder if a little editing couldn’t have at least made it marginally better.
This is even more frustrating given that director Terence Fisher had previously helmed Hammer’s excellent Frankenstein, Dracula, and Mummy adaptations.
Bottom Line: If you must watch it, fast-forward to the last half hour.
