First Trailer for Richard Kelly’s ‘The Box’

I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘The Box’ in one form or another, be it from it’s original inception as a Richard Matheson short-story, Button, Button, in 1970 or it’s popular television adaption by the same name in The Twilight Zone. Or perhaps you’ve heard it through hear-say or by the campfire. What really makes button, button so eerie, is its familiarity. Not in that we’ve read or seen it before, but that we’ve dreamt it before, fantasized it.

The plot is simple – a man and wife, under hard financial times, are confronted by a mysterious man who gives them a small box. In that box is one button. The man tells them if they simply push that button, two things will happen. The first, that someone, somewhere, whom they do not know, will die. The second, that they will receive a substantial amount of money.

Seems like a great little read or fodder for a nice forty-two minute tv show (which it is).

Well, ripe for the big-screen picking, Richard Kelly wrote and directed his own take on the story with The Box. Ominous, isn’t it. The flick stars Cameron Diaz as the wife, James Marsden as the husband and Frank Langella – Skeletor himself – as the man with the box.

Now, if you don’t know Richard Kelly, he’s the cat that wrote and directed Donnie Darko. Hold your childish screams… he also created Southland Tales, which is loudly touted as one of the worst films ever made; I’ve seen it, it certainly has a spot on the atrocious list. I won’t bother going into how incredibly overrated Donnie Darko is, as that’s for another post altogether, but Richard Kelly hasn’t hit “the mark” with a film once in his career.

The trailer for The Box looks to be par for the course for Mr. Kelly – contrived suspense, phoned-in performances and Kelly’s usual over-thought-but-ill-executed writing. I’m a huge fan of The Twilight Zone, and the Button, Button episode, so I will no doubt see The Box, but I can feel Richard Kelly patting my head already cooing, there, there’s a good boy… see how smart I am?…

Also, pay close attention *wink, wink* for the Saw theme song. There’s another red flag.

The Box opens October 30th this year.