The director of the upcoming “A Cure for Wellness” sat down along with the veteran actor to talk about their time working on the creepy set, the inspiration for the Gothic story, and how to not take the eerie aura home.
It almost seems foolish to think that the creepiness and the horrid memories of years past could somehow impact one today in a supernatural way. From a falling book to peripherally catching a fleeting shadow, one’s mind can begin to wander, settling on any and all explanations regardless of their rationality. But logic returns to reign surely. After all, horror movies aren’t real, right?
According to Gore Verbinski (“The Ring”) and Jason Isaacs (“Harry Potter” series), it certainly seems like it. While working on Verbinski’s long-awaited return to horror, the cast and crew of “A Cure for Wellness” began believing that the giant gothic castle perched high above in a Transylvania homage could in fact be the real deal.
Isaac’s Secrets and His Five-Course Banquet
There’s nothing more fun than uncovering the mystery of a hypnotically strange place. Whether it’s the derelict insane asylum at the other end of town or your grandma’s “mystery stew,” figuring out secrets are always fun. And for Jason Isaacs, it definitely turned out to be that way.
“There’s nothing an actor likes more than secrets. There are layer and layer of secrets going on with me and my character in this film that makes it fun and easy,” said the actor. Isaacs went on to say that “you look like a better actor if you’re given layers to play in” adding that “[Gore] gave me a five-course banquet.” It most certainly seemed so as Isaacs effortlessly glided through the narrative with the utmost attention to sinister detail, a deceitfully welcoming countenance and a voice that would make even Christoph Waltz look on in admiration.
Verbinski’s Gothic Inspirations
While the film reads like it is inspired from another work, it is in fact an original screenplay. With so many inspirations, homages and pastiches thrown in the film, how could one not imagine that it was ripped right from a sinister graphic novel or a 19th century German romanticism novel? Verbinski quashes that notion, explaining that “it was a blank page. There was something about this ancient place that has been there for a long time that’s always looked down from the clouds at modern man, offering a diagnosis.”
Talking of the influences for the aura of the film, Verbinski points out that it is “all things H.P. Lovecraft and a little bit of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain as well as the horror films from the 1970s.” The director added that the film is “not an immediately reducible narrative.” The originality of the work is something that Verbinski believes “we don’t get that often. We tend to go to movies and you can say what it is in one sentence or it’s something you’re really familiar with.” One thing is for sure, most audience members will have no idea what to expect next as they get on what Jason Isaacs calls “a big ol’ rollercoaster ride of emotions.”
On Finding the Perfect Creepy Setting
As is the case with so many other thriller/horror films, the setting of the film often plays out as an intangible character of sorts. “A Cure for Wellness” lives up that expectation, exceeding it with its palpable ominous aura. As the director explains, “there’s a lot of gravitas in the environment itself and it makes its way into the movie in some strange hidden way.” That sense of unease shines through as the archaic castle looms over the small Swiss village. One cannot help but feel its dominance in the sky, perched in a forever-condescending height above the proletariat masses.
While the exterior shots of the film’s castle were taken from a small Bavarian village in the south of Germany, the interior had a much more appropriate atmosphere for the film. “We found this old war hospital that was abandoned in the backwoods of a Berlin suburb. It was covered in graffiti, had broken windows” explains Verbinski. “That place has its own dark history,” added Verbinski in a menacing tone.
Isaacs had his own forewarnings on the film’s sinister vibes, explaining that “I thought that this was clearly sprung from demented twisted people. I spoke to Gore on the phone and it turned out much worse than I had imagined.” Perhaps that is true, but the film turns out to be what he later describes as “deliciously excruciating to watch.”
Working in a Seemingly Haunted House
What seemed most palpable was that the environment of the shoot influenced the vibe, aura and experiences of many of the people involved in the film. “”Most of what we did we shot in a place called Beelitz, which is the most haunted compound of buildings in Germany. It has a terrible history. You can hear the screams and the torment of the past” elucidated Isaacs. The actor went on to explain that “what makes acting easy is when there’s a good script, when the other actors are fabulous–as these guys are–but also when you’re environment feeds into it.”
Describing the horrific past that the compound lived through, Isaacs clarifies that “it’s where all the Russian’s lobotomized their political prisoners. It’s where Hitler did his rehab after the first World War. It’s where the Nazi’s went to recuperate after the second World War. And there’s been a bunch of serial murders there. It was a very creepy place. The place is full of dread.” Verbinski added that “It’s definitely very creepy” and that “all these places have a history to them.”
But Isaacs believed that the dread he had endured worked to enrichen the greater thematic goals of the film, saying that “I think it gives the film this lovely paradoxical feeling when it’s this beautiful white spa with people coming thinking the answer is there for them.” But nonetheless, Isaacs was on the edge of his seat throughout the experience, saying “I thought I heard and saw things all the time but I was on the edge of terror constantly.”
The film’s non-stop sense of unease, tension, creepiness, ominousness and terror is most certainly thanks to the work of the director, the actors and the crew. But with such a richly dark locale in the mix, all of the aforementioned talent is amplified tenfold. And to borrow from Isaac’s own words, that leaves us with a “deliciously excruciating [film] to watch.”
Catch “A Cure for Wellness” in theaters Friday, February 17.
