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 Director
: Vincenzo Natali
Starring
: Nicole DeBoer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miler,
Julian Richings, Wayne Robson, Maurice Dean Wint
Picture
1.85:1, DD Stereo, Single-Layer, Keep Case
Running
Time : 87 mins
The
story:
Fear...Paranoia...Suspicion...Desperation
Six
strangers awaken to find themselves trapped in a deadly
prison. A huge cube of interlocking rooms, some are booby-trapped,
some are safe. None offer a way out. The strangers have
no idea how or why they were put there. The strangers seem
to have nothing in common, one is a cop, another a professional
thief, a student maths expert, a psychologist and an autistic
adult. Gradually they realise that each one of them possesses
a skill to contribute to their escape, but with no food
or water they are in a race against time.
The
summary:
Though
I hadn't come across this film before, I'd heard good things
about it, so finally decided to give it a shot. Though the
film is relatively short at just 87 minutes and clearly
of a low-budget nature with minimal small-screen cast and
set locations, I was not disappointed. The Cube is 87 minutes
of highly original content, marvellous direction and extremely
good viewing. The film starts in spectacular fashion as
one unsuspecting victim walks head first into a huge wire
dicer, and things don't get any easier for them from here
on. Each of them is a key to their escape, but whilst some
skills are obvious, others just seem to hinder the situation
and place lives needlessly at risk. The tension soon rises
when the strangers attempt to take control of the situation
by staging their own power struggle as their personalities
begin to clash and they fight themselves to stay alive.
Though the fear of the strangers is evident from some of
the deadly traps, we know little about who and what created
the prison-like cube and in this respect the film leaves
a lot to the imagination (in the same way that The Blair
Witch uses your own imagination and fears to great effect).
Just don't expect everything to suddenly fall into place,
no answers to the questions are needed or are ever likely
to be found. We just learn a little now and then as the
film develops and really know no more than the cubes prisoners
do. As we make each startling discovery, it totally distracts
from the one-room location (with different lighting effects
to make different rooms!) and minimal storyline. Superb!
The
picture and sound quality of the disc is almost irrelevant,
as the dimly lit sets and few effects do not require the
usual Hollywood makeover. That said, the sound is good and
the minimalist sound effects fit in well with the story.
Indeed, a 5.1 soundtrack would have been something of overkill.
The picture is clear and well done, it just lacks the gloss
of the usual big-budget releases we've become accustomed
to.
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