Revaluated: A Cure for Wellness (2017)

                      

  For the third edition of Revaluated, we will be moving away from movies based on video games to the realm of psychological horror films. These movies emphasize mental, emotional, and psychological themes to mess with our heads and leave us with our jaws on the floor at the big reveal that pays off from the well-crafted buildup in films like Black Swan, The Silence of the Lambs, The Others, and Psycho. These movies rely on atmosphere and messing with the viewer's mind by exploiting the psychological fears in both the protagonist and the viewer, leaving the main threat to the viewer's imagination. With that said, let's take a look at the Gore Verbinski psychological horror flop, A Cure for Wellness. 

  A Cure for Wellness is a 2017 psychological horror film directed by Gore Verbinski. He is best known for the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films (2003-07), Rango (2011), The Weather Man (2006), and The Lone Ranger (2013). The film stars Dane DeHaan as Lockhart, a young executive from a large financial services firm who gets sent to retrieve the company's CEO, Roland Pembroke (Harry Groener), from a mysterious rehabilitation center situated up in the Swiss Alps. He finds himself in a spa-like center spearheaded by Dr. Heinreich Volmer (Jason Isaacs) and inhabited by a mysterious girl named Hannah (Mia Goth). What first starts as a mission to retrieve the CEO turns into a nightmare as Lockhart begins to discover the dark reality this sanitorium/spa may be hiding underneath its seemingly perfect exterior. 

  The film was Verbinski's return to horror in 15 years, as he had directed the 2002 remake of The Ring, which proved to be a huge success with both critics and horror fans alike, with many considering it to be one of the best horror remakes and a classic on its own terms. The film was written by Justin Haythe, whose previous writing credits include Revolutionary Road, Snitch, The Lone Ranger, and Red Sparrow. For this movie, he and Gore Verbinski were inspired by the 1924 Thomas Mann novel The Magic Mountain, whose central plot involves the protagonist staying at a sanitorium situated in the Swiss Alps. 

  A Cure for Wellness has a very distinctive and unique characteristic that sets it apart from other movies that have been covered in Revaluated, which is a feat that no film would want to have on its reputation. That feat of course is failing at the box office so badly that its theatrical run became shortened due to the studio itself yanking the film from the theaters it played at, which is a number that will leave you speechless once I reveal the details. The film had all the signs of a box office bomb long before it dropped in theaters. One of the primary reasons is a confusing marketing campaign that didn't gain the attention it was looking for and trailers that showcased a movie that emphasized drama and mystery rather than actual scares, which would be a difficult sell to general audiences.

 2017 was an overall bad year for Dane DeHaan, as he starred in three box office bombs back to back, those being Tulip Fever, Valerian, and A Cure for Wellness. Although you could argue that Valerian had the worst losses in terms of box office returns, I sincerely believe that this movie's box office is way more horrifying than the actual film itself. The film opened to a very low $4.2 million on its first weekend, only managing to squeak out a meager $8.1 million total. It barely made much overseas, only earning a measly $18.4 million, culminating in a total gross of $26.5 million, against a budget of $40 million. It doesn't help much when other films played on the same weekend as Cure for Wellness. These included The Lego Movie spinoff The Lego Batman Movie, the Keanu Reeves action-heavy sequel John Wick 2, and the Jordan Peele psychological-thriller Get Out, such was the adversity against the Academy Award-winning flick. 

  The film was pulled from theaters after three weeks, dropping from its wide release of 2,704 theaters to just 88 theaters (97.8%). This would result in the film obtaining two distinctions according to statistics from Box Office Mojo: having the 3rd worst theater drop of all time and the 29th worst opening weekend for a film playing in over 2,500 theaters. The film ended its theatrical release after just five weeks, failing to earn the consolation prize of being a hit with critics, but earning the grim title of box office bomb.

  A Cure for Wellness earned mixed reactions from critics and moviegoers alike, with criticisms going toward the film's runtime (2 hrs and 26 min), as well as the plot and structure. Praise went towards the camerawork, visuals, acting, and ambitiousness. It currently holds a 43% percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus reading: 

"A Cure for Wellness boasts a surfeit of visual style, but it's wasted on a derivative and predictable story whose twists, turns, and frights have all been more effectively dealt with before." 

  The film holds a 47 on Metacritic, which indicates "mixed or average reviews." Audience reactions are also mixed as well, with the film earning the general "Meh" score of "C+" on CinemaScore, and to finish it off, a 6.4/10 on IMDb. 

  

  Having seen the movie long after it crashed at the box office and disappeared from theaters, I can assure you that the criticisms against this movie are ones I will have to agree with, not only from critics but the audience as well. A Cure for Wellness is a pretty forgettable movie, it might have had two or three decent scenes, but that's all I can remember from it. Most of the criticisms that I read about this movie were justified and agreeable, as the film's runtime of 146 minutes felt excessive and made the movie a bit of a chore to get through. Most of the intrigue and mystery of the movie was lost in the messy structure of the plot. Some scenes did amuse me in a way, such as the memorable scene where Lockhart is strapped to a dentist's chair and gets a drill to the tooth. There were a handful of other scenes that had excellent buildup, atmosphere, and tension, like the scene where Lockhart enters a sauna to search for Pembroke. The scene is well crafted with the sound of the crutches as he keeps walking down a foggy sauna builds up mystery and intrigue as we anticipate what happens next. 

  But unfortunately, this is where the movie finds its fatal flaw; a messy structure of ideas that have some great buildup and generate intrigue but end up going nowhere. One tragic example of this would be Mia Goth's character, Hannah, an interesting character who has lived her life inside the confinements of the sanitorium run by Volmer. Once Lockhart goes to the town and takes her with him, this opens the opportunity to explore her reaction towards seeing and interacting with society for the first time, which would help us see how her character reacts to interacting with the human world. Alas, the idea is sadly underdeveloped, not being explored any further, much like the rest of the interesting ideas in this movie. 

                                                  

  I have to admit that the film isn't a total loss. It has perhaps the best camerawork I have seen so far in films that I have featured in Revaluated so far. The cinematography by Bojan Bazelli is top-notch, featuring the masterful use of morbid imagery and keeping the overall feeling of the movie eerie. A Cure for Wellness features cinematography that keeps the film intriguing, slowly creeping across hallways, giving us a feeling of unease and mystery, as if we are spectating Lockhart's journey through the sanitorium.  There are several shots in the film that I can remember in perfect detail, but the rest of the movie is basically a derivative and forgettable affair. It borrows elements from H.P. Lovecraft's works with characteristics taken from better psychological horror films. The film's score by Benjamin Wallfisch, who also scored Blade Runner 2049, is mesmerizing. It really shines in the film and is effective when used in many scenes. It's just a shame that the film doesn't live up to the high standards of the score. 

  What this movie suffers from the most is the script itself. It gives us a predictable story with generally half-baked and underdeveloped characters. Dane DeHaan, Mia Goth, and Jason Isaacs give great performances as their respective characters but their efforts are brought down by a predictable story that shoots itself in the foot by giving us an unimpressive plot twist. It was made obvious since you cast Jason Isaacs, primarily known for his villainous roles and making the entire sanitorium overly suspicious and obviously evil. It ruins the impact of the clunky buildup and poor execution of the premise. Perhaps in the ensuing years, this movie might garner a critical revaluation and it could obtain a cult following, much like other horror films that failed at the box office, but I find it unlikely this movie would achieve cult status unless it's among fans of H.P. Lovecraft. 

   Although A Cure for Wellness starts off on a promising note thanks to the potential of its premise, neat visuals, and Lovecraftian imagery, it ultimately descends into an overly long, predictable, sloppily paced mess that comes off as an imitation of better psychological horror films that came before it. It might satisfy fans of H.P. Lovecraft, but it won't do much for casual horror fans.

No copyright infringement is intended with the usage of these images. All the images used belong to their respective authors. Information was obtained from Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb, and A Cure for Wellness (2017).