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nA Cure for Wellness tells the story of a young businessmannnamed Lockhart, who is sent by his superiors to bring back his company’s CEO.nYou see, the rich old man went on a trip to the Swiss Alps to visit a ‘WellnessnSpa’ and ended up never coming back. Lockhart’s mission is to bring him back atnany cost because the future of the company is hanging on the balance of thisnone mission. The mysterious “spa” is rumored to have these curative waters,nwhich can heal people, and quite possibly, give them immortality! Is it all on people’snminds? Or is there something else at work here? Will Lockhart ever return fromnthe Spa that no one returns from?
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nVerbinski gives the whole film this classy vibe, this feltnlike an old school horror film. How refreshing is it to see a horror film notnaimed at teenagers? Where there isn’t a comic relief character saying stupidnjokes after something frightening happens? I thank the horror gods that finally,nhere’s a horror movie through and through, trying its hardest to creep you outnby slowly building on the terror and the paranoia, instead of treating us likenidiots. So my hats down to Verbinski, this felt like a true horror film. Itnsinks you into the horror and then goes further, darker. The atmospheric elements on this film were handlednsplendidly. I notice how hard Verbinski was attempting to hold onto thatndreadful atmosphere all the time. He made sure there were gloomy clouds, lonelynhallways, creepy looking characters, a dreadful color palette. To me the bestnhorror films are those that don’t let go of the atmosphere, as an audience, wenlike to stay in that spooky world and we want that spooky vibe all the time,nand on this film we get it. From the spooky castle at the top of the hill, tonthe gloomy weather and the spooky ghost like young girl that looms around thenspa, Gorvinski was trying to evoke doom, dread and isolation. He achieved it innmy book. From a visual standpoint the film is fantastic. Verbinski succeeded inncreating amazing visuals with this one. Like Kubrick, you could pause manynmoments on this film and they’d feel like a painting. There’s a lot of playnwith colors on this film, but not the kind that pop out, instead this filmnshows us muted colors that send the image of death and decay to ournbrains. And if its not grimmy dirty, its neat and almost too perfect. A clinical sort of perfection, which augments how some of the characters search for it.
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nAnd speaking about the films influences, well, they were allnover the place. Starting with the most obvious one: Robin Hardy’s The WickernMan (1973). A Cure for Wellness definitely follows that formula in which the main character is falling intonthe spider’s web, little by little. He doesn’t realize what he is gettingnhimself into until it is too late. It brought to mind other films likenKubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Martin Scorcese’s Shutter Island (2010) andneven Roman Polansky’s Rosermary’s Baby (1968), the latter when it comes to thenmusic on this film, which is perfect on certain scenes. So yeah, I loved it tondeath. It’s a film that explores the very nature of religion and why it exists.nWhy are people afraid to leave a cult? Why do we end up feeling like religionnwill save us? Why do we search for it? Do we need it? So here we have a filmnthat plays with important themes, it’s not just another empty horror film. Onnthe downside, the film does run for two hours and a half, I personally didn’tnmind them because I find this theme fascinating, but I’m sure some audiencesnwill grow impatient. My best advice would be to go into it expecting a slownburner that at the end will be worth the trip. At times I felt it was going toonslow for its own good, but then bang, it reeled me in again. I saw it lastnnight and ended up dreaming I was in that damned spa! Also, I feel like ansecond viewing is needed to truly absorb this one, it has a lot of story to it.nBasically, I was a satisfied costumer with this movie.
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