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Family Be Damned: Top 10 Cursed Movie Characters

March 15, 2007 by Heather Huntington

Turns out director Joe Johnston wasn't satisfied with the same ol' same ol' to explain why Benicio Del Toro is waxing all hairy and toothy in The Wolfman. Nope, no simple stroll-on-the-moors, random-wolf-bite, go-wild-at-moonrise for Toro's Lawrence Talbot. Instead, a family curse has been thrown into the mix, all the better to generate a piquant sense of doom even before Larry manifests an irrepressible urge to howl.

The curse that trips its way through the branches of a family tree is a great means to get to an audience's gut. We are, after all, consigned to what we're handed by our forebears, and whether such inheritances stem from genetics or upbringing, most of us have a vested interest in seeing if a protagonist can escape his/her own destiny.

Pushing into the background our own concerns over those pentagram-shaped birthmarks on our hips, we started checking out all the ways that filmmakers have managed to bequeath their characters the gifts that keep on giving (and that rank as a bit more dire than thinning hairlines or thickening bellies). Here, then, is our list of the top 10. Warning: You might want to consider DNA screening afterward.

10. The Nutty Professor (1996)

Looks like they've tapped the family tree for its syrup.

It's not hard to notice what gets passed from generation to generation in the Klump family. It's gravy. And potatoes, and bread, and pecan pie, and whatever other artery-clogging foodstuff might threaten to collapse a dining room table. With that groaning board of indulgences being consumed by the entire clan, it's unsurprising that not only do the Klumps resemble one another (well, it's also because Eddie Murphy is playing most of the roles), but that they as well demonstrate an all-consuming attitude towards each other and life in general. That's well-and-good when it's kept in the family, but when a potential fiancée (Jada Pinkett Smith) gets exposed to the tumult, the woman can be excused for worrying about what kind of corpulent maelstrom she might be getting herself into (not to mention what type of fetus she might one day have to carry to term).