The Box ....of DEATH

So, Arlington Steward would have us all believe that life is nothing more than an endless series of boxes. We live in a box (house), we drive around in a box on wheels (car), we spend our free time staring at a box (TV/computer), we ourselves are a box (the body housing the soul or something), and then when you die, you get put in a box. What an outlook on life. Fat, on the other hand, would have to take a much more positive view on things. Take for example, this past week. First, I won $40 for taking second place at fantasy football. Then I won a $50 gift certificate for finishing first at a tennis tournament. To top things off, I caught a MONSTER marlin on Saturday. And why not through a little cherry on top of that there icing. I won $40 again this past Tuesday for second at fantasy football. Could a box do these things? I think not.
But I digress. I will say this about The Box. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I would not by any means categorize this movie as a suspense thriller, but it had certain qualities that were just plain creepy and ominous.
The premise behind the movie is this. A strange man appears at the door of a couple with one child. The couple is offered the opportunity to press a button and receive $1 million dollars. The catch is, if you push the button, someone, somewhere will die. Of course the couple (obviously cash strapped at that time) pushes the button. They are then set on a course of tests and followed by a group of strangely zombie-esque humans (whom we learn are being brain controlled by Steward). These bizarre out-of-body (box?) beings point the pair in the direction they want them to proceed. The final test is a choice. The child has been relieved of his ability to see or hear, and the parents must decide whether to live a life in which this child will never regain these senses, or to allow the parent who actually pushed the button to be shot through the heart by the other, thereby returning the child to normal (minus one parent). The movie ends with Steward walking to the house of a different couple to offer them the $1 million they have "earned" by pushing the button and thereby "killing" the wife in the couple we had been following throughout the movie.
The movie took one bizarre turn after another. It relied very little on special effects, which is somewhat of a relief in the current days of cinematography. The soundtrack and film style was reminiscent of a classic Hitchcockian horror, that was more psychological than reliant upon gore and dismemberment.
Like many science fiction novels, this movie questions what it means to be human. In this case, altruism is the major determining factor of whether or not the human race will be allowed to continue its existence. Now you have to ask yourself, would you push the button?