How best to sum up Christina Ricci’s infatuation with horror?
Cursed, without a doubt.
For some terrifying reason, Ricci’s hell-bent on screaming longer and louder than reigning scream queen Sarah Michelle Gellar. Perhaps Ricci’s longing to relive her childhood glory days, when the Goth-garbed moppet frequented such kiddie-friendly fright fests as Casper and The Addams Family series.
When she hit her late teens, Ricci’s wisely reinvented herself as an art-house darling with the brains and cunning to match her voluptuous figure. Unfortunately, the 25-year-old Ricci’s now threatening to undo the goodwill and credibility she’s amassed–most notably with The Ice Storm, The Opposite of Sex and Buffalo ’66–with her incessant showdowns with the forces of evil.
Worse, Ricci’s career has sadly gone into hibernation since she and Johnny Depp stared down the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton 1999’s creepy Sleepy Hollow. With the exception of Monster,Ricci’s failed to compel even the most unforgiving devotee of independent cinema to squander $10 on such unmitigated disasters as The Man Who Cried, Pumpkin and Anything Else. Miranda debuted on DVD, Prozac Nation will premiere on cable TV in March, and I Love Your Work is tied in a contractual dispute that’s delayed its release.
Hopefully the arduous task of filming Cursed–a new werewolf yarn from Scream’s Wes Craven–will scare Ricci away from future horror projects. More than two years in the making, Cursed underwent numerous reshoots, endured significant casting changes, and recently shed much of its blood and guts for the sake of securing an all-important PG-13 rating.
Cursed comes on the heels of Ricci-s post-Sleepy Hollow supernatural catastrophes, Bless the Child (2000) and The Gathering (2001).
Perhaps the devil made Ricci assist Kim Basinger in Bless the Child. There were no discernible benefits to costarring in such a humdrum Omen-in-reverse chiller, but at least Ricci’s role was so minor that no one remembers her appearing in this Basinger bomb.
Heaven knows what’s happened to the British-made The Gathering, which stars Ricci as a backpacker suffering from amnesia and prone to paranoia-fueled hallucinations. Dimension has yet to release The Gathering, despite the resolution of a lawsuit in 2003 over the film’s U.K. distribution rights.
Miramax’s genre label, Dimension is infamous for snipping, delaying or simply dumping many of its horror and sci-fi offerings, including Below and Darkness. But Ricci likely felt comfortable knowing director Wes Craven and scribe Kevin Williamson had already overcome these obstacles when they revived the slasher genre with the Scream franchise.
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Perhaps Dimension’s rush to get Cursed into theaters should have tipped off Ricci that she destined to join the Titanic of werewolf yarns. In late 2002, Dimension optimistically penciled in an August 2003 release date. A delay in the start of shooting forced Dimension to push Cursed to February 2004. Filming began, but dissatisfaction with the original ending resulted in Williamson rewriting the script. Months later, Craven practically reshot Cursed. Cast causalities included Omar Epps and Skeet Ulrich, Ricci’s love interest.
Craven intended Cursed to hit theaters Feb. 25–after its October 2004 was scrapped–with an R rating. But with The Grudge hitting $110.3 million thanks to its PG-13 rating, Dimension decided to go with the same teen-oriented rating. Whether the trims work in Cursed’s favor remains to be seen: Dimension will forgo press screenings, a sure sign that the film is a howler.
“I can’t win at this point, so I’m just walking away,” Craven told Fangoria.
Ricci also can’t win, at least when it comes to Miramax.
When filming kicked off in 2000, Prozac Nation seemed positioned to capitalize on the Oscar-winning success of Girl, Interrupted. Ricci even served as producer of the drug-and-depression drama, which is based on the memoirs of Elizabeth Wurtzel. Miramax picked up Prozac Nation despite its lukewarm unveiling at 2001’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Then Wurtzel opened her big mouth and slammed her fellow New Yorkers for overacting to the 911 terrorist attacks. Miramax went into damage control-mode by attempting to put as much time as possible between Wurtzel’s headline-grabbing remarks and Prozac Nation’s 2002 release. But one delay followed another–reportedly much to Ricci’s consternation–until Miramax quietly yanked Prozac Nation from its release schedule.
Screenwriter Larry Gross speculated last year that Prozac Nation’s controversial subject matter made Miramax nervous and that the film would never hit theaters. He was right: Prozac Nation will debut March 19 on Starz!
Even when things seem to go right for Ricci, they still go wrong.
The only tears shed for The Man Who Cried (2001)–a World War II melodrama reuniting Ricci with Depp–were of boredom. The satirical Pumpkin (2002), with Ricci falling for a mentally challenged athlete, was unintentionally cruel and misguided. Woody Allen paired Ricci with her Prozac Nation costar Jason Biggs in Anything Else (2003). Too bad the romantic comedy reeked of a desperate–and ultimately futile–attempt by Allen to broaden his waning appeal by pandering to the American Pie crowd.
And Monster (2003) hardly saw Ricci at her best. Theron was utterly riveting as serial killer Aileen Wuornos, winning a well-deserved Oscar for her stunning transformation from ex-model to Florida prostitute. A vacant and ill-suited Ricci, though, was regretfully unpersuasive as the young women whose love partly drove a besotted Wuornos to murder.
With Cursed and Prozac Nation finally seeing the light of day, Ricci can put behind her two troubled productions that devoured her time and energy.
Whatever she decides to do next, she needs to reestablish her indie credentials and steer of anything that goes bump in the night. Perhaps now’s the time for Ricci to revive The Speed Queen, a dark road comedy she intended to direct soon after starring in and producing Prozac Nation.
The Bottom Line
If a coma-inducing chiller as Boogeyman can secure a $19 million opening, so can Cursed. But if Cursed takes a silver bullet at the box office, Christina Ricci will likely escape the blame. Regardless, the once-promising indie staple must now leave the dispatching of werewolves, ghosts and demons to Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jessica Biel or any other less-talented horror vixens. Calling the shots on the set–possibly with The Speed Queen–might be the best way for Ricci to break the curse that afflicted Cursed and Prozac Nation.
