The Curse(1987)

POOPER
Zack, Alice, and Carl are the only survivors from the farmhouse, but Carl is slowly being infected because he drank a small amount of water from the Crane’s well. Even though the EPA have said the liquid has been eradicated, it shows up in another part of the state, meaning it’s still alive.

LONG VERSION
Nathan Crane (Claude Akins) is a farmer in the town of Tellico Plains, Tennessee, who lives with his wife Frances and their kids Zack (Wil Wheaton), Alice (Amy Wheaton, Wil’s real-life sister) and Cyrus (Malcolm Danare). Frances, tired of living a loveless marriage to Nathan, is having an affair with their hired-hand Mike, who lives in a shack on the farm. While they are having sex, a meteorite crashes onto the property, and it begins to glow. Everyone goes to the crash site to see what happened, and Nathan sees Frances with Mike. The next morning, Alan Forbes (Cooper Huckabee), the town doctor and their neighbor, examines the meteorite, which has begun oozing out a liquid of some kind. Alan has no idea what the liquid is, so he wants to alert the EPA, but he’s talked out of it by Charlie Davidson, the head of the local chamber of commerce and the town realtor, because he thinks this will prevent the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from building a proposed reservoir in the area. This would also ruin Charlie’s plan of buying up all of the farmland in town so he can sell it to the TVA for a huge profit. Alan’s wife Esther also doesn’t want him to tell anyone, because it might reduce the amount of money they could get when they eventually sell their house to Charlie.

The liquid has started seeping into the ground and has breached the Crane’s well, affecting their water. The cloudy and foul-smelling water is used to water the crops and is given to their animals, and it begins to affect them. The crops are growing much larger than usual, but they are rotten and inedible. The animals are becoming violent and are attacking the family. Nathan, who is a religious zealot, thinks all this is just God testing their faith and it’s likely the kids are just provoking the animals. Meanwhile, Frances is showing signs of an infection due to her handling of the crops, and it’s making her go insane and also causing her to start attacking the family. Nathan, thinking this is God’s revenge on Frances for cheating on him with a now-fired Mike, locks her in the bedroom and forbids the kids from telling anyone about her, especially Alan. Meanwhile Zack, thinking the well water is the cause of the infection, won’t allow himself nor Alice to drink the water or eat the food from the field. Instead, he gets it from the Forbes’ house. Alan also thinks the well water is bad, so he gets a sample of the Crane’s water and takes it to a lab in Knoxville, which is several hours away from Tellico Plains, where they tell him it will take a day or two to get the results.

While all this is happening, Carl Willis (John Schneider), a representative of the TVA, has come to town to survey the area for the proposed reservoir. While checking out the Crane’s property, he goes to the house to ask for some water. No one answers but the door is unlocked, so he goes in and fills a glass from the kitchen faucet. Just as he takes a sip, he is attacked by Frances, who is now completely insane. He is nearly killed before Nathan is able to stop her, and he ties her up in the bedroom, but not before Nathan kicks Carl out of the house. Later, Nathan and Cyrus are in the barn examining their infected cows. The cows begin to decay and soon explode, showering Nathan and Cyrus in maggots and worms. Because of this, they soon become infected and start acting violently. The next morning, Zack is awakened to a noise in the house. He is investigating when he is attacked by Frances, who escaped her restraints and is now looking grotesque due to the infection. Nathan stops her from killing Zack and locks her away in the cellar.

Alan is back at the lab in Knoxville to get the test results of the water, and he learns it contains an unknown element that is mutating the water’s molecular structure. Alan immediately starts heading for the Crane farm, but first he leaves a message for Carl, telling him to meet him at the Crane farm that night. Meanwhile, Charlie is at the Crane farm to make another offer for the land, something Nathan has repeatedly refused. Esther sees him drive up and joins him. They decide to work together to get the Crane’s to sell, and hopefully that will convince Alan they need to sell their home. Just as they walk onto the property, they are quickly attacked by the Crane’s now-feral dogs, which maul Esther to death and chase Charlie into the house. He locks himself in the cellar, only to be attacked by Frances, who kills him.

That night, Alan arrives at the Crane house and sees smoke billowing from the ground under the house. Alan breaks into the house and wants to rescue the only members of the family who don’t seem to be affected: Zack and Alice, who have been hiding in their bedrooms the entire time. Before he can reach them, Alan is attacked by Nathan and is killed. While Nathan barricades the doors, Cyrus goes after Zack and Alice. Zack fights off his brother and hides their sister in a closet to protect her. Nathan then attacks Zack, but before he can kill him, Carl breaks in and stabs Nathan with a pitchfork. Carl then gets Zack and Alice and tries to flee the house with them, but they are attacked by Cyrus. Zack kicks Cyrus down the staircase, knocking him out. At this time, the ground underneath the Crane’s house begins to glow and heave, causing it to fall apart. As they reach the door, Nathan attacks Zack again, but is knocked out by a falling support beam. Zack, Alice, and Carl finally escape the house as it collapses, killing Nathan, Cyrus, and what’s left of Frances.

The movie ends six months later. Carl is in a hospital because he is beginning to show signs of the infection due to the small amount of water he drank from the Crane’s well. He is watching the news, where the EPA is cleaning up the liquid from the meteorite, and are saying it has been eradicated and won’t pose anymore danger. But in another part of the state, the ground begins to glow and heave, meaning the liquid has spread and is still alive.