The Box Movie Review (Like A BAWX!)

Oh God, I'm so going to hell for these puns....

Before we begin, I'm saving up the Paranormal Activity review for a moment where the hype has died down a bit, and it's close to a DVD release.

Last weekend, two new horror films came out. One of them I was actually anticipating and I made a blog post about earlier (The Fourth Kind). The other, I was slightly interested in, but my expectations were somewhat low for (The Box). When I saw The Fourth Kind, I was strongly disappointed at how terrible it was (If I review it, I might say stuff that could get me banned from this site), but when I saw The Box right after, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, despite being a PG-13 horror film. But what distinguishes this from other PG-13 horror-fodder. Well for starters, this is the second modern horror movie this year that was made by a cult-favorite director. On summer, we had Sam Raimi, creator of the Evil Dead trilogy make Drag Me To Hell, and with this movie, it's directed and written by Richard Kelly. If you don't know who Richard Kelly is and you claim to call yourself a cult-classic-enthusiast, then shame on you for not knowing the man behind the awesomeness that is Donnie Darko!

The Box is based off of the short story "Button, Button" which was written by Richard Matheson. The plot for the movie goes as follows. Norma and Arthur Lewis are struggling with many financial troubles. Their son's tuition price is being raised, Arthur has been rejected from astronaut training, and Norma is still suffering from a foot disfigurement that has plagued her life since she was 17. That is where Arlington Lewis Steward (I don't know if the fact that his middle name is the same name as Norma and Arthur's last name is a coincidence or not) comes in. Arlington Steward, is played by Oscar nominee Frank Langella, who knows how to make the guy creepy, especially with his horrible face disfigurement. Steward brings in a Box containing a button which is shielded by a glass dome. If you push the button, two things will simultaneously happen. 1.) You will receive a suitcase containing 1 million dollars *Insert Austin Powers Reference Here*. 2.) Someone they do not know will die. They have 24 hours to make the decision. It is definitely a tantalizing morality test (In the trailer, they used a song from the Saw soundtrack). Unlike films like Saw, however, there is no gore, and it is all psychological. After many hours of decision making arguments, Norma pushes the button.

This action sets everything into motion, which therefore leads to a chain of events that lead to the word "preposterous". Yes, many critics complained that the movie was very very preposterous and absurd, but then again, these are the same people that liked Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko. And as far as I can remember, that movie involved time travel, weird energy stuff coming out of people's chests, and a giant talking demon bunny that tells a teenage Jake Gyllenhaal that the world will end in a set number of days. Although I will admit that The Box is definitely much more implausible than, Donnie Darko (Which I didn't think was humanly possible til now), that doesn't change the fact that Kelly treats all of the preposterous material "seriously". The good kind "seriously", not the bad kind "srsly". I will not spoil anything to you, but it involves things such as nosebleeds, NASA, Mars, Lightning, The Peace Sign, Water Gateways, etc. etc. etc.

As you can tell, it is all pretty confusing, but then again, it's that "unknowing" and unpredictability that makes this movie creepy. Although there is little suspense, the lack of thrills is made up for with a creepy sense of menace and a strange supernatural atmosphere not unlike that of good ole classic Twilight Zone. However, the preposterousness of the plot does, get in the way of things unfortunately, for the movie mixes in so many ideas that it doesn't know what it wants to be. A morality tale, a supernatural thriller, or a psychological drama. Thankfully though, it unintentionally finds itself in the category of (once again) good ole classic Twilight Zone. Unintentionally, but hey, it's something. The mood contemplates with the 70's setting, which definitely makes the movie a whole lot better. If they modernized the story, it would make even less sense, and believe me, this movie is pretty unsensical (The fact that I'm making up words doesn't make sense either!!).

As for the acting? Well, I already mentioned Frank Langella, but everyone else also gives a great performance. The only problem I can find was Cameron Diaz's accent, but the performance she gives at the end is truly memorable.

Speaking of the end, it is definitely an absolutely amazing finale. It's both creepy, and heartwrenching at the same time. Unfortunately, I half expected the twist...but the other half added something totally unexpected. All in all, this will give you a good horror fix if you have nothing else to watch, and fans of Donnie Darko and Twilight Zone will be right at home, but the preposterous plot, lack of knowing what it wants to be, and the lack of suspense still kinda hurts it. Still, I was pleasantly surprised with The Box. So I give it a 3.75/5.

Well, that's all for the review so.........bai