Cube
Review by Peter Syslo

CUBE (1997) is an interesting mix of science-fiction and horror, with an intellectual twist. The movie is like a combination of THE MATRIX, SAW, SAW II, p, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, and television’s “Lost”; it is more of a thinking man’s sci-fi/horror film, with an emphasis on character interaction and dialogue. Now, this may turn off some people right at the “get go” because it is not really a fast-paced, visceral film (although it does have a few gory deaths). However, I feel that this movie is a great example of how a thought-provoking fil m can be made out of a simple idea and how it can become more than the sum of its parts. We saw this phenomenon in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT; the concept is so simple but it works on so many levels.

CUBE is a Canadian production, which is written and directed by Vincenzo Natali and co-written by Andre Bijelic. The film stars Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Wayne Robson (veteran of “The Red Green Show”), and Maurice Dean Wint.

The movie is about a group of strangers who wake up inside of a cube-shaped room. The room appears to be a type of jail cell and each person quickly realizes that there are a series of similar, interconnected rooms on all sides of that initial cube room. Everyone bands together to move through each room and to search for an exit, but things become complicated when they discover that there are deadly traps in some of the rooms (the opening scene of a prisoner being “cubed” by a razor net really heightens the anxiety – all of the traps cause gruesome deaths). To make matters worse, ugly human nature creeps in and a self-interested cop, Quentin (Wint), pits himself against all of the other “prisoners”, making escape much more difficult. As the film progresses, it turns into a race against time as the “prisoners” use their intellect to understand and conquer the structure that holds them.

I thought that this movie was a clever idea and it is much more enjoyable than one would think (people running through identical “cube” rooms may not sound that appealing). Given the sparse (yet interesting) set design, the character interaction and the impending doom is what really drives this movie and I think that the filmmakers definitely “pulled it off”. In fact, I really think that the random, impending danger of setting foot in an unknown room is the exact impetus behind the picture. It’s like the thrill that one gets from gambling; the unpredictable nature of it can be very exciting.

CUBE creates tension and suspense; a combination that I feel many newer horror films are lacking. In a sense, I feel that this movie is a throwback to horror/thrillers of the 1970s/1980s by the way that it establishes the killer as an unseen and unpredictable force. The characters have a certain degree of control over their safety and destiny, but one mistake and they will be killed without knowing the reasons why. The experience of the unknown is a big part of the effectiveness of this film and honestly, I couldn’t predict what was going to happen next – yeah, I had a sense of things, but I was mostly in the dark. I feel that a lot of modern horror films do too much explaining and give you too much background on a killer – all of which seems to counteract suspense. A lot of the time, in films today, you know how and when the killer is going to kill and you know the killer’s motives. Most of the residual suspense is just in anticipation of the actual killing scene, but I don’t think that will always hold a viewer. CUBE is a film that accomplishes the task of creating great suspense, from a few small elements, and it really kept me interested, throughout.

Cutting to the chase: I think that CUBE is good film and it is different than most sci-fi/horror films. The special effects are really top-notch and the overall atmosphere of the film is bleak yet thrilling, at the same time. You barely notice that all of the cube rooms look identical because clever lighting effects and the possibility of a trap being in a room supersede the minute details of set design. Regarding the acting, it was basically good, despite a few instances of clunky dialogue delivery, and the ensemble cast really added to the drama of the story (each character had a certain skill or strength that he/she utilized in the escape effort and it was interesting to see that play out). If you like survival or escape films, like the ones that I mentioned previously, or if you like mathematically-based sci-fi/horror, you might like this film. If you like highly visual storytelling or if you like fast-paced action, then this may not be your “cup of tea”. But, if you are looking for a different area of the horror genre to explore, CUBE and its sequels are definitely worth watching.