Cube (1997,
Dir. Vincenzo Natali) is the sort of film that you don’t watch unless you accidentally
stumble across it on late night TV or have a geeky friend who badgers you relentlessly
to watch it. Several years ago, after returning home in the early hours of the
morning, I put it on for a few minutes to fill the void while I drunkenly demolished
my fried chicken, and I have been hassling friends to watch it ever since. “Oh
you like horror? You should check out Cube.”, “You love independent cinema? Have you
seen Cube?”, “You’re feeling paranoid and insecure? Well, you should definitely watch
Cube!”
As you can
see, not only am I a crappy friend but Cube is, ironically, not a film that
fits neatly into a box. Apart from the genres mentioned above it also contains
elements of sci-fi, mystery and psychological thriller but it shouldn’t be
classified solely as any of those individual things. It probably falls closest
to independent horror though. In a similar vein to the seminal Texas Chainsaw
Massacre (1974) or Blair Witch Project (1999), it was made on a shoestring
budget (almost literally in this case as
shoe laces become a pivotal plot device) which forced the filmmakers to rely on
ingenuity and resourcefulness in order to create an effective and chilling
piece of cinema.
Cube has a
deceptively simple narrative which follows seven people who all wake up to find
themselves in a sterile, futuristic maze comprised of identical cubic rooms
joined to each other via a hatch on each wall, floor and ceiling. The
characters have no idea where they are, why they are there or who has put them
there. Nor do they have any prior connection to one another. They soon discover
that some of the rooms are booby-trapped with lethal mechanisms and the rest of
the film revolves around their attempts to escape the maze whilst also chewing
over the bigger question of “what the hell is going on?”.
The entire
film is shot on one 14’ x 14’ set, reused to represent each new room they enter
and altered in only very slight ways. It is a massive credit to the team behind
the film that this never once becomes boring or repetitive. In the true spirit
of independent cinema they utilise the limited facilities they have available
in such a manner that rather than being detrimental to the film, it becomes one
of its biggest strengths. It is no insult to the cast to say that - for the first
half of the film at least - the set is the star of the piece. It quickly becomes
claustrophobic and cloying not only for the characters but also for the
audience.
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The fact that
the audience are in almost the exact same position as the characters themselves
is one of the reasons this is such an effective film. We essentially become an
extra (albeit mute and passive) character. The camera never leaves the labyrinth and
we don’t have any more information than the characters themselves. When they
relate their back stories to one another we feel the same doubts and paranoia they do about whether the truth is being told. When a character starts to
mentally unravel or become increasingly irritating we are equally as affected
as the other characters because we are stuck in that same confined space, unable
to distance ourselves from them.
This is a
film of two halves in that the first half of the film focuses on the cube being
the driving force of the narrative, and the second half turns into more of a
character study of the human condition. Elements of "Lord of the Flies" come to
the surface as the characters, exposed to such a stressful and incomprehensible
situation, start to turn on each other and crumble mentally. By the end of the film it is hard to place who
the true "villain" of the piece is: the cube or human nature. This is not a
film that will spoon feed you, nor will it resolve every question which it
poses and because of this it can be quite frustrating at times but in a
positive and engaging way. It’s the sort of film that has you on the internet
thirty seconds after the credits roll trying to unravel certain plot points.
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I’m not going
to pretend that this is a film without faults. Although the overall concept and
story are inspired, the actual dialogue is often clunky and clichéd to the
point of being unintentionally funny. This is not helped by the fact that at
times some of the performers themselves seem more suited to background roles in
TV movies rather than starring roles in a feature. However, this is part and
parcel of independent cinema and rather than slating it for these reasons I
prefer to celebrate it. Embrace the fact that it is funny when these cheesy
lines of dialogue come up, and if a character is really getting on your nerves
then hold on to the possibility that they may come to a horrific end in the
next room they enter. This film is almost nihilistic in its method and it could
even be argued that it is best enjoyed if you are in a bit of a bad mood.
Cube is a
film which proves that a big concept can often be worth a lot more than a big
budget. The bare-bones production techniques, unhindered by scene stealing
superstars or over the top special effects, produce genuine chills and scares. Despite
utilising only a fourteen foot square set, often clunky dialogue and actors that
reflect the limited budget, it still manages to have you in the nervous, clammy palm of its hand from start to finish; give it a try!
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| Spoiler - Ice Cube does not appear in this film |
Suggested
further viewing: Alien (1979), Hellraiser (1987), Dogville (2003)
