Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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 but soon suspects that the spa's miraculous treatments are not what they seem.
A Cure for Wellness is a visually sumptuous Gothic horror with genuinely impressive, lush cinematography from Bojan Bazelli — its greatest asset. The Swiss Alps setting and decaying sanatorium aesthetic are rendered with real craft and atmosphere. The plot starts compellingly but grows increasingly unwieldy, stretching its 2.5-hour runtime with repetitive dread before collapsing into a messy, over-explained finale that undercuts much of the preceding tension. Dane DeHaan carries the lead adequately, though the supporting cast is underused. The film borrows heavily from Shutter Island, Gothic horror traditions, and Lovecraftian body horror without synthesizing them into something truly singular, keeping Novelty moderate. The ending in particular is a significant stumble — tonally jarring and narratively unsatisfying after such careful atmospheric buildup.