Synopsis: A young Wall Street stockbroker (Dane DeHaan) is sent to a remote location in the Swiss Alps to retrieve his company’s CEO (Harry Groener) from an mysterious wellness center. He soon learns that not everything is as it seems. When he starts to uncover some truly terrifying secrets, he finds himself diagnosed with the same “illness” that keeps the rest of the guests there searching for a cure.
The film was directed by Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean) and features a script from Justin Haythe who wrote The Lone Ranger and adapted Revolutionary Road to the big screen.
Here’s what I liked:
The look. It’s a gorgeous film shot by cinematographer Bojan Bazelli (who worked on 1987’s China Girl, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, The Lone Ranger and more).
The acting. Dane Dehaan is great at playing these emotionally tortured characters. Mia Goth as Hanna is beautiful and vulnerable. Jason Isaacs is so perfectly creepy. Hello there, Lucious Malfoy.
Nods to The Ring. There were certain things that took me back to the other film such as the pale, barefoot girl with long hair standing near a pool of water. There’s also the strange kid methodically drawing black circles in crayon.
Here’s what I didn’t like:
That ending. There’s fire and a fight scene that feels like it’s straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Volmer was creepy and interesting but then he turned into a cartoonish villain who wears people’s faces like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. I also didn’t appreciate the rape scene. SPOILERS: Ugh. Like murdering people with eels is creepy and horrific enough. Did they really need to include rape? It felt especially gratuitous with her breasts just so haphazardly on display.
There was just this weird obsession with nudity. You’d see people walking around naked and the camera would stay on them a few seconds too long. They were treated more like objects, in a way.
What happened with the village locals? So much time spent on them delivering disapproving looks but they never actually do anything for the story
Overall:
It’s a creepy film that definitely plays upon your worst fears. There’s some truly horrific moments with a dentist drill and near drowning. So if you’re looking for something to make you wholly uncomfortable, this film will do that. But for me, it was a messy film with a contrived ending and it felt like I wasted my time. At least it was pretty. 1 out of 5 stars.
(image via screencap)
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