Cursed to Kill (2016) by Jason Sheedy

Director: Jason Sheedy
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Patient
Genre: Supernatural

Plot:
Having survived a vicious encounter, a paraplegic woman who was in a cult finds herself cursed not to speak about the situation as the demonic beings related to the cult target those who might hear her and if she offers up her nephew instead, forcing her into a difficult decision.

Review:

This one ended up being quite the decent enough effort. One of the main elements with this one is the rather enjoyable setup here that manages to give this a really intriguing idea. That this one goes for a wholly different take on the whole concept of the demonic curse by taking out those she talks to regardless of how loud her voice is and doing so in exceptionally gruesome manners has a fun time to it. There's even more fun to be had here as this as it ties into the backstory about the cult and their need for anonymity as the crucial scene with the demonic messenger carrying out the rules of the whole exercise which is a truly unique and engaging variation on these story lines here by giving a quite detailed explanation for everything that happens here.

With that comes the frantic and truly chilling scenes that play into this setup by going through the attacks on the guests in her hospital room with alarmingly brutal results which soon carries over into the torment they unleash upon her with the demonic faces or physical torments being inflicted upon her while other incidents are carried out around her. The other positive here is the incredibly creative resolution that gets put into effect here in order to stop the whole torments from continuing as it's a solid trick to pull off which manage to really give this one a lot to like in order to hold itself up over it's few minor flaws.

The film's biggest problem is the fact that the singular-location setting really undoes so much of the thrills and suspense here since nothing really much happens for large portions of the time so it really tends to run into the problem of being repetitious for so much time here. That leads to the film feeling incredibly padded out for this extended duration of time since way too much of it just runs around the same point of her in the bed doing nothing while the rest of the film plays out with the demonic tortures being inflicted. In addition, that also concerns the CGI used here which gives this one such a low-budget feeling with the lack of funds for what's going on being obvious. The last flaw here is the convoluted finale which manages to take what could've been a fun aspect of the film and renders it into being a flashback that really could've been shown on-screen rather than how they treat it here.

That lameness extends to the acting, which is apparently full-on low-budget uselessness. Anney Reese as Rachel does nothing but really lie down in the hospital bed the whole time, and when asked to do something in the form of her protestations to those around her it doesn't really mean much as she does just stay there for the whole time. Brett Brooks is tolerable as Jesse as the concern for her condition is believable but doesn't have much else to work with and sometimes disappears totally from memory if not in the film. That really tends to be the problem with the acting here as it's mostly those who come and go into the room to check in on her. These issues do manage to hold this one down.

Overview: **/5
A real misstep here that could've been incredibly fun but overall becomes quite bland and problematic, this one is a real missed opportunity in the long-run. This one is really only worthwhile for those undiscerning fans of low-budget horror while those who are looking for more from their films should heed caution here.