There are a few films vying for your dollars this weekend. I do think there is extraterrestrial life out there and I live alone, so watching The Fourth Kind is out (plus the new ABC remake of V gave me my alien fix earlier this week). But the thriller The Box, with Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, and James Marsden is finally being released today and I, for one, will head to watch it, if only because it’s based on a 1970 short story by Richard Matheson.

Just as the creepy stories of Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King give me a rush, so do Matheson’s tales of paranoia and paranormal phenomena (that same story, “Button, Button,” was also adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone). Plus, other Matheson tales have been adapted into films quite successfully (most recently, Will Smith’s I Am Legend). The basic premise of this one is that a financially strapped suburban couple in 1970s Virginia (Diaz and Marsden) are offered $1 million if they just press a button. Only, every time they press it, a complete stranger will die. We’re in a recession, folks, so the dilemma may not be as black and white as you think. I love Miss Diaz (and her Southern accent and Farrah Fawcett hair are certainly endearing here), but I’m most looking forward to Langella’s partially deformed face and shady character.

Tell me: will you go watch The Box? If not, there’s always Precious with Mariah Carey, but you’ll want to bring a box of tissues for that one.

Check out the trailer for The Box below.