Review of The Box (2009) by Archibald T — 22 Mar 2011

Norma and Arthur receive a box at their front door early in the morning. Inside the box is another box and a letter telling them that a Mr. Stewart will be stopping by at 5 o' clock to explain. Before this we're informed that Mr. Stewart had been making these boxes and sending them to many people. This stuff is classified information and somewhere along the line Mr. Stewart is part of a conspiracy from the people in NASA where Arthur also works.

There's lots of talk about Mars, gateways into other places, bright lights which may or may not mean something about the after life. Lots of stuff is quietly unanswered because much of it kind of makes sense if you look at the film in a science fiction way.

When Mr. Stewart arrives at the house, he meets Norma. They go into the kitchen where he explains the box. "If you push this button two things will happen: One of them will be that somewhere, someone you never met will die. The second you will receive a payment of one million dollars." Sounds great, but wait what was the first part? Oh, yeah, If I hit the button I'll kill someone. Heh. Must think this over to make the right decision........

Norma tells her husband about this and he doesn't buy it in fact he kind of eggs her on until she reaches the point where she hits the button. They receive the money and all doesn't seem well. In fact it all boils down to NASA and Mr. Stewart. Let me just tell you it doesn't end well.

Aside from this film being one total mindfuck, it's extremely well made and I have to admit I was slightly giddy by how nostalgic the filmmaking was because it has such a 1970's feel to it. I mean it literally screams the 70s but in a supernatural way like Spielberg's Close Encounters.

My favorite scene would have to be the gateway scene where Arthur is in a library and he meets Mr. Stewarts wife who informs him to choose the one gateway for salvation. After he steps through there's this trippy sequence of blinding white light. That was cool. He's then hovering over his wife while she be in bed except he's in a pool of water which then shatters causing him and the water to fall to the bed. It floods much of the upstairs.