Netflix’s endgame of possessing all of the world’s new media has taken another step forwards with their acquiring of horror flick CURS>R, after it debuted at Cannes last month.
The story revolves around Kayla, a college dropout who attempts to address her financial hardships by being the first to complete an obscure survival horror game from the ‘80s that comes with a prize of $125,000. However, it soon transpired that the reason nobody ever finished it was its death-dealing challenges becoming all too real, and as Kayla’s world is warped around her to the whims of pre-rendered graphics, the end reward at stake instead becomes her very life.
The tormented young woman in question is played by Iola Evans, a relative newcomer whose most significant screen credits are a minor role in a couple of episodes in The 100’s final season and a small part in one episode of tedious fantasy misfire Carnival Row. The film also stars Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game) and Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes), and while it features the horror legend that is Robert Englund, his listed credit of “Self” would seem to indicate that his role will be a cameo.
CURS>R is presumably a play “cursor” (a computer screen’s selecting arrow) and “curser” (one who casts curses), to signify the combination of forces at play. I’ve written previously that films mimicking the stylings of video games generally turn out far better than ones that directly adapt exiting titles, and as one of the latter CURS>R has a lot of potential. It’s reported that Netflix paid “high seven figures” for the movie, so it can only be assumed they have a great deal of faith in its popularity when they unleash it upon the world.