Connect with us

Featured Article

A Cure For Wellness review: Dir. Gore Verbinski (2017)

A Cure For Wellness review: Gore Verbinski returns to horror for his latest, a film that revolves around a Swiss-based spa which has a hidden secret.

A Cure For Wellness review by Paul Heath, February 2017.

A Cure For Wellness review

Dane DeHaan leads the cast of Gore Verbinski’s big-budget horror-thriller which takes us to the Swiss Alps and a mysterious “wellness center”, where rich folk travel from all corners of the Earth to pay through the nose to reach a peak of health.

DeHaan plays Wall Street banker Lockhart, a wealthy twenty-something climbing the ranks at a New York financial outfit. There’s been an issue at the firm and Lockhart must travel to Switzerland to retrieve CEO Harry Groener and bring him back to the Big Apple so that he can aid an investigation. However, when Lockhart reaches the shadowy outfit, full of old folk looking for some quality rest and relaxation, he realises that things aren’t what they first seem and he slowly begins to unravel its many secrets. As his brief stay begins to become much more than that, Lockhart starts to question his own sanity and the motives of the mysterious Volmer (Jason Isaacs), the center’s shady director.

A Cure For Wellness review

What first grabs you about A Cure For Wellness is its huge scale. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise from the filmmaker that brought us three Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, as well as The Lone Ranger, but this is a true genre effort, a film which takes Verbinski back to his horror routes (The Ring). While its budget is big, most of it has been spent on practical sets rather than glossy special effects, a new phase in Hollywood which is very much welcomed. In fact, the production design on A Cure For Wellness is amongst some of the best scene in recent years, certainly in this genre, with no expense spared in regards to attention to detail.

Verbinski has assembled a likeable cast playing rather unlikeable characters, from DeHaan’s money-hungry New York guy, to Mia Goth’s tortured Hannah. Then there’s Jason Isaacs, clearly relishing his role as chief bad guy, the shifty doctor employing everything from slimy eels to dodgy dentistry to take Lockhart to his dark places. All those performances are excellent, particularly DeHaan who clearly put himself through the mill during production. A stand out scene is one involving a huge tank and a bed of eels (see below), one that only appears on-screen for a couple of minutes, but took weeks to film, the actor completely submerged throughout. It’s also down to DeHaan to carry the film as he appears in every scene – something that he does commendably.

A Cure For Wellness review

Some will no doubt struggle with its massively dark, deeply uncomfortable content (particularly during its climactic scenes), and indeed its huge run-time, but A Cure For Wellness manages to keep the viewer engrossed throughout its compelling, if sometimes predictable and familiar story arcs. However, this is daring cinema, both for everyone involved, and indeed the studio, who have taken a risk on their $40 million investment, which is huge for a psychological horror movie.

A Cure For Wellness is visually stunning, full of ambition and intrigue, and Gore Verbinski’s latest is perhaps one of the most inventive of his impressive career. It really is one of the most disturbing tales we’ve seen in a long time – and we’ve never shifted around in our seats as much as we did during this.

Completely unpredictable, masterful and unrelenting, A Cure For Wellness will stick with you for a long time afterwards – in fact, we are going to need a cure for our nightmares…

A Cure For Wellness review by Paul Heath, February 2017.

A Cure For Wellness is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th February, 2017.

Latest Posts

More in Featured Article