Three years ago, director Gore Verbinski made a risky foray into big-budget filmmaking for Disney’s The Lone Ranger – an ambitious, yet ultimately bloated Western blockbuster that forced the Mouse House to brace for a $190 million hit. Franchise plans were quickly scrapped and Verbinski, who initially broke onto the scene through Pirates of the Caribbean and The Ring, was left facing something of a creative crossroads.
Alas, Verbinski opted to return to his psychological roots with A Cure for Wellness, a beautiful, if horrific R-rated thriller that orders Dane DeHaan arrogant young executive to a wellness center located in the Swiss Alps. While there, DeHaan’s lead undergoes a series of aggressive experiments – experiments that range from docile exercise regimes to being submerged in murky water tanks brimming with humongous eels. Nightmare fuel, basically.
All of that and more is crammed into today’s mesmerizing international trailer, which brilliantly ducks under tradition by focusing on a single shot of a standalone bathtub, before rolling out some blink-and-you’ll-miss-them shots of those questionable human experiments.
A Cure for Wellness is set to be distributed worldwide on February 17, 2017. Jason Isaacs and Mia Goth also star.
An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company’s CEO from an idyllic but mysterious “wellness center” at a remote location in the Swiss Alps. He soon suspects that the spa’s miraculous treatments are not what they seem. When he begins to unravel its terrifying secrets, his sanity is tested, as he finds himself diagnosed with the same curious illness that keeps all the guests here longing for the cure. From Gore Verbinski, the visionary director of The Ring, comes the new psychological thriller, A Cure for Wellness.