Why You’ll Never See Wes Craven’s Original Version of ‘Cursed’

Ever since horror fans learned there was an entirely different version of Wes Craven‘s Cursed sitting in the vaults, one question has never gone away: When are we finally going to see the “Craven Cut?”

According to Los Angeles-based critic and industry veteran Brian Collins, who has actually watched the unfinished workprint, the answer is simple: never.

Speaking on the Best Movies Never Made podcast, Collins explained that fans often misunderstand what the original version actually is. While many assume there’s a completed director’s cut waiting to be restored, he says that’s simply not the case because the film was never finished.

“The thing about the original version, and for this we’re talking about the version with Skeet Ulrich,” Collins said, “is that they never finished filming it. It was never completed… the movie was about, I think, 85 to 90% finished shooting when they decided to shut down and retool it.”

That’s an important distinction. While years of reporting have chronicled Dimension’s extensive reshoots and rewrites, Collins says the original production never filmed its ending at all.

Because of that, Collins says fans asking for the original cut to be released are chasing something that doesn’t actually exist.

“People are always like, ‘Oh, can we get the original cut released?’ Well, the thing is, it’s not finished. So it’ll never be a satisfying thing, and you can’t even graft on the ending that they did make because it’s [a completely] different context at this point.”

In fact, he says the workprint literally ends moments before the climax.

According to Collins, the surviving footage stops when the main characters enter the film’s wax museum nightclub after realizing the werewolf is inside. “The cut just stops right there,” he explained. “There’s no climax.”

Nor can the ending from the finished 2005 film simply be inserted.

“You couldn’t use the climax that they did shoot because Skeet would all of a sudden morph into Pacey,” Collins joked, referring to , who replaced during the massive reshoots.