LOS ANGELES— “We’re certified Fresh!!!!! Don’t miss out!” filmmaker and actor Benny Safdie posted online in December, referencing his latest project with Emma Stone and comedian Nathan Fielder.
Attached to the ostensibly straightforward celebratory post was a photo of the Rotten Tomatoes score for “The Curse” — an impressive 94% endorsement from critics who watched, next to a comparatively atrocious audience score of 35%.
Safdie recently made headlines for confirming his professional split from his brother and collaborator, Josh Safdie (who is credited as as an executive producer on the A24 series). Although the pair had made acclaimed independent films like “Good Time” and “ Uncut Gems ” — which had a similar chasm between audience and critical response — the co-creator and star of “The Curse” has had a successful year on his own, including acting roles in “Oppenheimer” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
And while the series has not exactly been a hit with the masses — it was by far the least-watched Showtime series this season — “The Curse” has garnered a cult following of devoted fans, even inspiring its own subreddit filled with analysis, theories and deep dives into suggested obfuscated symbolism and religious references within the show.
It follows Whitney and Asher Siegel (Stone and Fielder), a newly married couple making an HGTV series called “Fliplanthropy,” where they purchase rundown houses in Española, New Mexico, and convert them into mirrored, pressurized “passive homes” — often likened to thermoses for their ability to self-regulate temperature — with no windows, heating or air conditioning.
While filming the show with Asher’s frenemy and producer, Dougie Schecter (Safdie), Asher has a strange encounter with a young girl who curses him — a turn of events that arouses paranoia for the couple, despite their best attempts to convince themselves of its irrationality.
