Cube (1997)

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'Why are they throwing innocent people in here, are we being punished?!'

Directed by Vincenzo Natali

Starring: Nicole De Boer, Nicky Gaudagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller

Budget: $350,000         Box Office: $565,000

Concept

This recent cult classic Canadian film appeared out of nowhere in 1997. Taking inspiration from an episode from 'The Twilight Series' this film has that perfect claustrophobic feeling for you. Ok so where do I began explaining this Rubix puzzle huh?

   Alderson wakes up in a room. A strange room with weird industrial patterns, all in squares. Each wall, ceiling and floor has a hatch, which leads to similar looking rooms. He climbs inside one of the rooms and...gets killed by a trap. 

Elsewhere, Quentin - an escape artist, Worth, Holloway - a conspiracy theorist, Rennes, and Leaven- a mathematician find themselves in one of the rooms.  No-one knows how they got there or why they are there. They begin searching each room, trying to narrowly avoid setting off any traps. 

They are soon accompanied by Kazan, who is mentally challenged. Leaven begins using maths and discovers that hatches with any prime numbers lead to trapped rooms. Of course this leads to tensions and doubts.

Tensions begin growing, one of the group knows something. They are trapped inside a Rubix Cube set of rooms, travelling from one square to another, desperately trying to escape. Like rats in a maze can our protagonists get out?

Review

This film is good. It's a bit of Saw mixed in with a nice touch of claustrophobia and psychological terror. It is again as I have said one of those films that make you think 'what would I do?' I personally, would curl up into a ball and cry and remember my F in mathematics.

If you liked Blackout or Devil (M. Night Shyamalan) then you will enjoy this movie, you boring person. If you like Saw or psychological horror or like to see people bickering, you will enjoy this. 

After the script for Cube was written the director made a short film named 'Elevated'. The short was for investors to know how Cube was going to be and give an insight into the story and production. I have tried searching for the short film for you, if you come across it drop the link in the comments. 

Ironically each of the main characters names are based on real life prisons, an extension of the feeling of being 'locked in'. For example Kazan is named after Kazan prison, in Russia, and Quentin is based off the notorious San Quentin State Prison in the U.S.

Give this film a watch, or be square(d). (I am so sorry).