#52 -- The Box (2009)

Director: Richard Kelly

Rating: 2 / 5

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star as a couple fallen on hard times. Though he is a rocket scientist working for NASA, they live in a big, nice house, and he drives a corvette. So I'm not quite sure how hard those times are. Probably about as hard as my dick. And I'm a girl...so it's probably not all that hard. But, we're supposed to believe they're struggling, so we'll go along with it. When they receive a package in the mail, it seems that their problems will soon be over - or become a lot worse. An old man - with half his face missing - arrives and explains the deal to them. If they push the button on the box, they will receive 1 million dollars. And someone in the world will die. They will be responsible for someone's death - is that worth 1 million dollars. With medical bills piling up due to Diaz's messed up foot, they definitely think so.

They push the button, and soon after, a woman is killed. It seems that everyone in town is in on the "deal," and everyone gets nose bleeds when they talk about it. And apparently, the old man is an alien. He was struck by lightning years before, and said that it gave him some sort of special powers. But a lot of weird things happen to the happy couple, and...none of them make sense. Not to me, at least. This movie is more confusing than horror, and I was extremely confused throughout the majority of it. Plus I was thrown off by Cameron Diaz's atrocious southern accent. 

They were given a second deal, as well. Their son was abducted, and made to lose his sight and hearing. The deal was this: the man could shoot his wife in the heart, and their son would return to normal; or, they could live with their son the way he was. 

I didn't know what was going on half the time I was watching this. The movie was based on a short story by Richard Matheson, and I feel that the story might reveal more. I will check the story out if I can find it, and hopefully be able to better understand what was going on. But for now, I have no idea, and it quite bothers me. The premise of the movie was good, but the slow pacing, and not being able to understand it, threw me off. It was disappointing, but I would recommend it to people who have read and enjoyed the short story.