A struggling farmer believes God has blessed him when his crops begin to grow substantially after a large meteor lands in his field, dissolving into his soil and water supply after the local doc, Forbes(Cooper Huckabee), pokes a hole in it. The infected water(it's molecular structure altered by the introduced alien substance from the glowing meteor) causes people and livestock to act irrationally, soon turning violent. Hysteria, dementia, violent mood swings, and skin mutations all result from the infected water.The fruit is worthless internally despite looking ripe and healthy externally. The local realtor and city councilman, Charlie Davidson(Steve Carlisle) woos a TVA water employee, Willis(John Schneider)hoping to get a contract for building a dam in their community.<br /><br />Poor Zack(Wil Wheaton) has to rough it on his own once his mother, Francis(Kathleen Jordon Gregory) becomes "under the weather" and his sister(Amy, Wil's sis) is assaulted by manic chickens, as Nathan(Akins) and his antagonistic jerk son, Cyrus(Malcolm Danare), both even worse after being infected, torment him through insults and harsh treatment..you see he's not their blood(..his mother married Nathan, it seems, because they needed support he could give) which means they feel little pity or affection towards him. Nathan is a hard, strict, bible-quoting fanatic who doesn't want anyone "butting in" to matters he considers private, even if disease and death spread because of the infected water, or what's evident before him, the fact that his family are afflicted with a plague.<br /><br />Tolerating Claude Akins for the duration of this film proves to be difficult because he's such a loud and repugnant creature you just want to see suffer in the worst possible way for the problems he causes. And, Wheaton is certainly easy to sympathize with because he's caught between a rock and hard place, little wiggle room to remove himself as madness evolves all around him. Of course, those involved in attempting to cover up something which could prove harmful regarding future prosperity will get their just desserts. Some really spine-tingling make-up effects showing what the mutations and disease cause to humans(and particularly the fruit and cattle)such as opening wounds bursting forth maggots, slimy puss, and beetles! The climax, as the house literally begins imploding while sinking into the earth, is a bit too much. The hideous nature for which causes mother Francis to deform into a ghastly monstrosity is really potent stuff. I'm sure Akins and Danare's fate will be met with applause. I do consider The Curse a success in regards to how it can effectively make your skin crawl, but other than that, I find this rather foul in all respects. It seems to suffer post-production problems, in script particularly, as characters vanish, while others make such preposterous choices which could cause irreversible results(..not to mention a ridiculous ending which leads us to believe that nothing was done in regards to the crisis of the film, written off as no threat or danger to the communities surrounding the farm whose soil and water could cause a national outbreak).<br /><br />This is part of a series of films unrelated to each other.