Good evening everyone and welcome to Part 1 in my three part series on the Cube Trilogy. Back from the dead as always is the host whose the most grotesque, ZombieRedneck. Today we will be looking at Vincenzo Natali's 1997 sci fi survival horror The Cube. A movie about survival, blood, gore, and the feeling of claustrophobia. Seriously, this movie is all kinds of interesting and should be watched by anyone who enjoys a bit of intellect with their gore. So without holding you guys up any more than I have to, lets start the first review of a three part series with "The Cube":


Genre: What makes the cube interesting is that it is a survival horror movie with heavy sci-fi and mystery elements into it. Its horror elements are mostly due to the fear of not knowing why these people have been brought together, or whether or not they will survive the next room. It makes it all the more interesting to watch. It gives a fun little mix of the evils of human nature and the evils of scientific progression, without getting too preachy in its message.

Basic Plot: Six people, each of them from very different backgrounds and walks of life, wake up to find themselves in a strange room, housed in what they soon discover to be a giant cube made up of thousands of possible rooms. Each of the prisoners has abilities that soon become clear as they learn about each other and band together to try and escape. These prisoners are made up of a police officer, a mathematics genius, a building designer, a doctor, a master of escape, and a mentally disabled man. On their way through the CUBE, some fall victim to the darker sides of their morality while others begin to question the others are who they really say they are. Will they unlock the secrets to not only their reasons for being here, but also to their freedom?

Level of Blood and Gore: This movie is a pretty fun little movie and is full of blood and gore including scenes where men get carved into little cubes, and a man’s face is completely melted off. This film does not skip on the blood or guts, and delivers some pretty effective gore effects for a movie made in 1997. Frankly, I found myself pretty impressed with both how simple and effective the special effects of the gore were in this movie. If you’re a splatter fan, you will enjoy watching faces melted, people cut into cubes, and being grounded up against a wall.

Kills: Zombie my man, what makes these kills so different from that of any other horror movie or survival horror movie? Well first off, this movie is perhaps the only example I know of that gives the victims a somewhat fair chance of survival, and could escape relatively unharmed (I AM LOOKING AT YOU SAW!). The characters actually have a decent chance of getting away, if they use their heads and not resort to turning on each other. Secondly, the kills are unique and interesting as they change with the introduction to different rooms. You can be burnt alive, melted, sliced, diced, impaled, the list goes on really. This is one of those movies where a kill can (literally) be around every corner. It’s more about a wait and see scenario, because the slightest mistake will result in the death of someone. Despite this, there is a small body count due to the size of the cast being pretty small.

Setting: The entire movie takes place in the Cube, and its accompanying rooms. Each room has a colour that can either show its safe or a danger to our heroes. Its use of colour, in the rooms, is especially interesting, as none of them really follow a linear meaning, but does leave the viewer asking whether or not the next room is truly safe. What makes this increasingly interesting is that we are not really sure how much time has passed as the movie continues. Yes they claim to be tired, but you could argue that their fatigue is a result of their attempts at survival.

How It Racks up: This movie is considered a cult film, though I am unsure why this is. As this is a really good movie, full of blood, gore, mystery, tension, suspense, and a rather interesting plot to go by. There is no big bad monster killer, or demon sorcerer behind all this. Simply an unknown group of people, that wishes to test all these random subjects in their death machine. That is what I think I find truly scary about this movie. There is no formula for how they pick some of their subjects, no real method to their madness. Yes there is an escape expert but you have to consider the fact that there was the possibility he would die before he got to the others. Of course, the government is one of the suspects who the survivors hold responsible for their predicament (Which lets me be honest, considering MK Ultra was a thing, it shouldn’t surprise anyone), but they are just one of a few of possible masterminds behind this. It’s a very interesting and intriguing movie that managed to do the survival horror aspect before Saw. (Funny enough, Lionsgate who make the Saw movies picked up the sequel for this movie HYPERCUBE.)

Overall Mark: 8/10
This movie is great to watch and can be seriously interesting if you want to examine it. If you want to watch some people get sliced, diced or burnt, then this is your movie. If your looking for a story with good character development this is your movie. If you want thrills and chills, this is your movie. If you want all questions answered by the end....you may have to deal with only having some answered.

This movie is rated R due to blood and gore.

Oh yes, I remember this saga quite strange and suffering due to the riddles.
An agonizing and claustrophobic atmosphere.
Too bad that past the first film .... the others looks a bit like.
A very good choice of film @ZombieRedNeck .
To see or to see again.
Thanks.

I really enjoyed Cube. It was a great movie. The 1st and 3rd are better than the sequel but enjoyed the whole series all the same. I remember first watching this when I was at a young age. I watched a lot of horror films as a kid actually LOL. But Cube stuck with me as a favorite because the story was so unique. Also this film inspired a FO3 mod called Cube Experimental. If you haven't played that mod it is really challenging and you can definitely see how they got their influence from the film.
Great choice and great review!

@Hoppyhead I actually completely forgot about that mod, havent played it but heard a lot of good things about it. Thanks for the compliment and look forward to my review of Hypercube.