MOVIE: The Cured is one sick, slick and scary movie

Paul O’Rourke  

DOES the world really need another zombie movie? If you ask Irish writer/director David Freyne, the answer will surely be a resounding yes.

‘The Cured’ is set in a dystopian Ireland where a crippling virus has turned many into muscle munching monsters, a portion of whom are no longer offending, but still haunted by their cannibalistic past. 

One such individual is Senan (played by Sam Keeley) who is taken in by his widowed sister-in-law Abbie (Ellen Page of ‘Juno’ fame) as he tries to restore some normality to his otherwise hollow existence. 

And as Conor (Tom Vaughan Lawlor), an ex-politician turned zombie (it can be hard to notice the difference), organises a resistance movement against the Government’s plans to exterminate those infected, we are left wondering will Senan give into his animalistic cravings, or chose a different and peaceful path.

The attraction of the zombie movie, loved as it is by Irish filmmakers, is no doubt the ability to shoot one on a very low budget. 

And the challenge in the current era where we’ve seen it all cinematically, is to come up with something fresh and unique rather than having a bunch of extras shuffling around the streets of Dublin in their nightgowns. 

It has to be said that Freyne resists that particular cliched urge until the film’s closing sequence and he manages to infuse the preceding 90 minutes or so with just enough frights to keep you satisfied. In fact many of the scares come from what we don’t see in a clever use of the camera and a directorial debut that shows promise. 

There are strong performances from Keeley in the lead, Vaughan Lawlor and of course Page, while Dubliners will spend much of the time trying to recognise locations around the capital. 

We recognised one Dublin 9 street sign and hope that any zombies previously residing in the Glasnevin area have long since moved on. 

Overall, ‘The Cured’ should provide something to chew on for lovers of the genre and we score it a review score of 3 meaty stars.