Cube

Movie Name: Cube
Year of Release: 1997
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Nicky Guadagni, Wayne Robson, Julian Richings
Genre: Mystery, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis and Review

"Cube" was writer/director Vincenzo Natali's feature directorial debut, which premiered at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival on its way to receiving considerable critical accolades, and being a staple for quite a variety of Film Festivals during 97/98 (it went to the Sundance Film Festival of 1998, but also graced the Berlin Film Festival, to name but a few). The film follows the narrative of 6 characters all of whom are strangers to each other and who individually wake up to find themselves inside a prison of sorts, where all the rooms are in the shape of a square, and have a series of gates to move towards another room. Everyone soon finds out some of these rooms have lethal traps. The group is comprised of a police officer by the name of Quentin, a doctor by the name of Holloway, a student by the name of Leaven, a somewhat mysterious man by the name of Worth, and they're soon joined by an escape artist named Rennes and an autistic gentleman by the name of Kazan. While Rennes wants to move forward with his plan of getting out of the cube, he's soon killed by one of the traps from one of the rooms. Leaven in the meantime finds out that each passage between the rooms has numbers imprinted and there's a code associated with them (related to prime numbers). Those that are indeed identified as prime numbers are safe rooms, whereas the others are not. While the group is initially very collaborative, even if suspicious of each other, as time progresses, and they become more and more frustrated, their violence towards each other also starts bubbling to the surface. Leaven in the meantime thinks she can guide the group to one of the rooms closer to the outside of the platform, so they can finally be liberated, while Holloway believes all the events to be part of a massive Government conspiracy. Worth suspiciously keeps his opinions to himself, until he finally reveals what he knows to the group.

One of the most interesting things about "Cube" is the claustrophobic environment the director manages to create throughout the entire duration of the narrative. The fact that everyone is unaware of why they've been caught, and what are the rules for getting out of the prison, remain pretty much one of the great mysteries of this narrative. The film for all intended purposes feels like a "Twilight Zone" episode, only without Rod Serling's narration, and without an epilogue that smoothly closes what just took place. The film is also a keen observation on the disintegration of people's best and more acceptable social behaviors, since as the threat remains constant, but their closeness to death increases, more of the characters' primal survival instincts come to the forefront (and some of their darker behaviors also make an appearance). The film feels very much like a slick B-movie, and considering it's small budget, it smartly leverages the claustrophobic stance of the prison (and the effective production design that brought it to life), to put these characters through considerable challenges. Where the film does miss out is on the character development, since all these characters are rather archetypes without much nuance or detail that illustrates who they actually are, and even in how they relate to each other. The acting within the group is also a bit all over the place, but the production team is effective, including Derek Rogers' cinematography and Jasna Stefanovic's production design. It's an interesting and worth watching film from a director who has gone on to create some interesting features.