While a title like The Curse of Downers Grove suggests the supernatural, director Derick Martini’s new film is a tale of small town violence, teen angst, and revenge. It’s based on the book Downers Grove by Michael Hornburg and the screenplay was written by Martini and Bret Easton Ellis, whose famous for his novels deconstructing masculinity and extreme violence. Considering Ellis’ previous work (The Canyons aside), I wasn’t expecting such an uninspired, middle of the road film.
That’s not to say it’s bad. It’s fairly entertaining throughout, with crackling dialogue and an enjoyable cast. Particularly Kevin Zegers (Wrong Turn) who puts in a wicked turn as Downers Grove’s resident cokehead jock, Chuck. At a party one night, Chuck attempts to rape Chrissie Swanson (Bella Heathcoate), a perpetually serious senior who doesn’t believe in the titular curse.
Oh yeah, I should tell you about the curse. For the past eight years in Downers Grove, one senior has died in a freak accident mere days before graduation. There’s a light backstory involving the high school being built on sacred Native American land, but this element is hardly explored to a degree to actually give it any weight. When the Native angle is visited again during the film’s third act, it just feels silly and completely out of left field.
During her attack, Chrissie manages to gouge out one of Chuck’s eyeballs. The film contains several bursts of graphic violence like this that work pretty well considering the savagery of Downers’ male population. Aside from Chrissie’s little brother Dave (Martin Spanjers), every dangling pair of genitals in town is an aggressive, violent guy. Even Tom Arnold, who plays Chuck’s football obsessed dad. When Chuck returns home missing an eyeball, he’s not worried about his son, he’s pissed because now he cannot live vicariously through Chuck’s prospective sports career.
With his roid-raging football teammates in tow, Chuck sets out a path of revenge against Chrissie. Here’s where the characters start making nonsensical choices. Chrissie knows Chuck and his goons are out to get her, so why does she decide to throw a party and invite the whole school? Following a brutal attack on Dave, the police refuse to do anything, even bring in Chuck for questioning. Chrissie acts frustratingly hot and cold towards her love interest, a bad boy grease monkey. Why doesn’t anybody do anything to stop Chuck?! Then it all ends in a montage down memory lane that feels like a very weird choice to close the curtain on.
There are some moments of palpable tension. The assault on Dave that I mentioned is a very intense scene – mostly because Zegers’ performance is so wonderfully vile. He’s mostly known for Gossip Girl, but hell, Kevin Zegers plays the villain with glee. His performance, along with Bella Heathcoate and the others, along with Ellis’ script, help elevate Downers Grove from a humdrum thriller to a fairly entertaining one. The curse was always in my mind too, which kept me hanging on. According to this curse, someone has to die. It’s worth sticking around to see who becomes worm food.
It’s nothing I would ever revisit again, but it’s worth watching once.