So, I wrote about the sometimes-blasé nature of contemporary horror in a recent piece on The Bye Bye Man, a much hyped movie that turned out to be a dull, formulaic disappointment.  Shortly after, I embarked on a Shyamal-a-thon to mix things up; contrary to the flack he gets, I think M. Night makes a great, original movie with a unique vision.  But if you really want unique – and, that is, unique with a side of extra fucked-up (there’s no eloquent way to encapsulate the reality of this film) – look no further than Gore Verbinski’s A Cure For Wellness, which crawls under your skin like a festering amoeba and provokes distinct discomfort throughout what is, for horror, an epic-scale movie length: two and a half hours.  A Cure for Wellness is also a cure for boredom, for the common moviegoer and the volatile sadist alike.  But even as I write this, I find myself torn: do I spend a post emphasizing how uncomfortable and unconventional the film was, or do I explore some reasonably intelligent questions the film raises?  This, then, is my disclaimer: I have no idea how to begin to discuss this movie, so I can’t predict where this post will go.  I’ll try not to divulge the film’s big secret, but beyond that effort, I make no promises about anything.

Continue reading “A Cure for Wellness, A Cure for Ennui” →