Anyone that watches movies knows that the music behind a movie sets the mood of a particular scene.

Cursed is a new Wes Craven movie that stars Christina Ricci. Ricci plays a girl that is reunited with her brother after their parents die in an accident. Strange things start happening when Ricci and her brother are attacked by a savage werewolf.

The title song “Better Now” by Collective Soul is a great song, but I don’t think that it sets a scary mood for Cursed. The beginning lyrics of “Better Now” could fit the plot of the movie. However, would “Better Now” make a listener feel the frightening mood of the movie? Not really, someone would be more likely to drive really fast.

The same is true with Dashboard Confessional’s song on the album “This is a Forgery.” It’s a great song, but it doesn’t belong on a Wes Craven movie soundtrack. Dashboard Confessional sang the title track “Vindicated” on the Spiderman 2 movie soundtrack. In fact, “This is a Forgery” seems to belong on a soundtrack like Spiderman 2, not a movie that is scary. The songs “Better Now” and “This is a Forgery” does not belong on a soundtrack for a movie that has werewolves and curses.

The other two songs on the CD, “Fine Without You” by Alkaline Trio and “If You Don’t Jump (You Are English)” by Gusgus are horrible, horrendous, and sorry for the pun, cursed.

“Fine Without You” sounds like a song that would become popular in Europe, but no one would want to hear it in America. The song has nothing to do with the movie. It doesn’t add anything to Cursed.

The song mentions that, “My head is pounding like a pillow.” When someone’s head pounds, it usually feels like a sledgehammer, not a pillow. This song does not belong on this soundtrack. It sounds like it should be in a club somewhere in Europe. “Fine Without You” sounds like the producers of this album had to find a song to fill space and they chose this one.

If the title of “If You Don’t Jump (You Are English)” doesn’t make a listener cringe, then the fact that Gusgus sings the same line for the first minute and half will. Not only does he sing the same line over and again, no one can understand what the line is. Gusgus has nice guitar licks in the beginning, but that is repeated through the entire song.

Individually, some songs on the Cursed soundtrack are good. The songs on this album are either really good or they are really horrible. However, to me, none of these songs belong on this album. When I read the synopsis for the movie and listened to these songs, the songs sound like they don’t fit with the idea or plot of this movie.

The movie could have bombed at the box office, but if the music was great, I’ll be the first in line for the album. If you want to hear good songs, then buy this album.