Richard Kelly's "The Box" didn't do very well in theaters this weekend, but one can only assume why. Was it the strong competition, or the fact that the "push button for money" concept has been done a million times?
The "Twilight Zone" has done it and a group of amateur Australian filmmakers have it done it as well. Their 2007 film, called "Black Button" was made for $200 and without knowledge of Richard Matheson's short story that inspired "The Box" and the "Twilight Zone" episode.
"Black Button" is only seven-minutes, has almost 1.5 million views on YouTube, and provides a clever twist to the famous concept. It won a few short film awards and was one of the top six finalists for Best Short Film during the 2007 YouTube Awards. Check it out below.
Good short film. Haven't seen The Box yet, so I can't compare the two. But I did see the original Twilight Zone episode, and I can honestly say, The Box is best portrayed as a short film or TV episode, cause it is too short a story to be told in 2 and half hours or whatever the running time of the movie is.
i would have just taken the key, robbed the old dude of his cash and ran out the door.
SpookyCupcakeswrites: on November 9th, 2009 at 4:36:09 PM
wow, great twist
FFantasy1984writes: on November 9th, 2009 at 6:46:41 PM
I actually think it's good that this article points out that the short story "Button Button" came before all three of these. But I've read the short sroty and don't really see how they can make it into a full length movie. But more than likely I'll see it on DVD.
