Ever since horror fans learned there was an entirely different version of Wes Craven‘s Cursed sitting in the vaults, one question has never gone away: When are we finally going to see the “Craven Cut?”
According to Los Angeles-based critic and industry veteran Brian Collins, who has actually watched the unfinished workprint, the answer is simple: never.
Speaking on the Best Movies Never Made podcast, Collins explained that fans often misunderstand what the original version actually is. While many assume there’s a completed director’s cut waiting to be restored, he says that’s simply not the case because the film was never finished.
“The thing about the original version, and for this we’re talking about the version with Skeet Ulrich,” Collins said, “is that they never finished filming it. It was never completed… the movie was about, I think, 85 to 90% finished shooting when they decided to shut down and retool it.”
That’s an important distinction. While years of reporting have chronicled Dimension’s extensive reshoots and rewrites, Collins says the original production never filmed its ending at all.
Because of that, Collins says fans asking for the original cut to be released are chasing something that doesn’t actually exist.
“People are always like, ‘Oh, can we get the original cut released?’ Well, the thing is, it’s not finished. So it’ll never be a satisfying thing, and you can’t even graft on the ending that they did make because it’s [a completely] different context at this point.”
In fact, he says the workprint literally ends moments before the climax.
According to Collins, the surviving footage stops when the main characters enter the film’s wax museum nightclub after realizing the werewolf is inside. “The cut just stops right there,” he explained. “There’s no climax.”
Nor can the ending from the finished 2005 film simply be inserted.
“You couldn’t use the climax that they did shoot because Skeet would all of a sudden morph into Pacey,” Collins joked, referring to Josh Jackson, who replaced Skeet Ulrich during the massive reshoots.
Collins also shed light on just how dramatically the film changed after production restarted. In the abandoned version, Jesse Eisenberg and Christina Ricci weren’t siblings at all.
“In the original version, Jesse Eisenberg’s character and Christina Ricci’s character are not siblings. They don’t even know each other, and they do not interact until pretty much this scene,” Collins said. “It’s very much… a three-hander about Skeet, Jesse, and Christina.”
Those comments line up with what has previously surfaced about the original screenplay, which centered on three strangers whose lives intersect after the werewolf attack before the project was almost completely reimagined.
So should fans keep campaigning for a “Release the Craven Cut” movement?
Collins doesn’t think so.
“It’s not a satisfying thing to watch. It’s an interesting thing to watch… and for the people that are like, ‘When is it gonna get released?’ Never, because it’s just not a complete movie.”
Interestingly, Collins also revealed that there is another version of Cursed that fans have a far better chance of eventually seeing: an alternate ending filmed during the Josh Jackson reshoots.
“There is another ending for the version that they did release, and I do wish that could come out because it’s a better ending,” Collins said. “It’s an ending from the reshoot with Josh Jackson. And the ending even tested fairly well, and Weinstein still decided to redo it, and then it tested worse, and then they went with the new one anyway.”
While alternate endings for Cursed have been discussed by fans for years, Collins’ comments about that Josh Jackson ending testing well before ultimately being replaced add additional context to one of horror’s most famously troubled productions. Existing accounts have noted that an earlier reshot ending received the strongest test scores before Dimension nevertheless ordered yet another round of reshoots, but details about that ending remain scarce.
You can listen to the first part of the two-part podcast by clicking here.
Released in 2005, Cursed follows a werewolf loose in Los Angeles that changes the lives of three young adults who, after being mauled by the beast, learn they must kill their attacker if they hope to change their fate to avoid becoming werewolves too. Despite reuniting Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson following the success of the Scream films, the heavily reworked production proved to be a major disappointment at the box office. Produced on a reported $38 million budget, Cursed grossed just $29.6 million worldwide before fading from theaters, though its infamously troubled production has since made it one of horror’s most endlessly discussed “what if?” stories.
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