Nearly eight years after it was made, Cube still holds up as an excercise in low budget filmmaking. A small central cast and essentially one set, disguised via lots of clever lighting and camera tricks, still manages to pull you into it’s perplexing story and keep you hooked until the downbeat conclusion.
When a group of disparate strangers wake up in a series of connected cube shaped rooms, they become obsessed with escaping, but must learn to work together and tread carefully if they are to negotiate the cube’s booby trapped rooms.
The cast who were all unknown except for the then less famous Nicole De Boer, were all good if not likeable thanks to their character motivations, but it was the reasoning behind the story and the trap sequences that had sci-fi fans and casual viewers intrigued throughout.
In fine indie film tradition the film’s shocking conclusion was a huge middle finger in the face of main stream cinema, and despite two increasingly confusing and gory sequels, it is the original which still packs the best punch.
OVERALL SUMMARY
With the trilogy almost complete, it is interesting to see how good the film that started it all actually was.
