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This week’s selection is a horror-infused sci-fi picture featuring a paranoid narrative, tension you can cut with a knife, and brutal kill sequences. I’m talking about Vincenzo Natali’s scrappy, mind-bending feature film directorial debut, Cube.
Cube follows a group of strangers who wake up in a life-size cube-shaped geometric puzzle from which they cannot escape. No one recalls how they got there and none of the abductees knows why they were chosen. Together, they must navigate the massive expanse of the cube and steer clear of traps if they are to make it out of the harrowing ordeal alive.
The film’s premise is an exceptional one. The idea of waking up inside a giant math puzzle with no idea where you are and no visibility to the outside world is terrifying. It’s an imaginative and chilling premise that is executed rather effectively.
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Natali delivers a viewing experience that feels confined and endlessly expansive at the same time. The claustrophobia comes from existing with the characters trapped inside the contraption. But the structure is seemingly never-ending and nearly impossible to solve, which provides the perception of endlessness. It’s very much like these people are trapped in a life-size Rubik’s Cube with no playbook from which they can take their cues.
In addition to a highly imaginative premise, Cube benefits from an intriguing central mystery. Natali, along with cowriters André Bijelic and Graeme Manson, leaves us with more questions than answers, which proves profoundly effective. The screenwriting team understands less is almost always more. Any answers they might give the viewer are likely to pale in comparison to the horrors of the unknown. Accordingly, the audience is left to grapple with uncertainty, wondering what nefarious forces are working behind the scenes.
The film was made for an estimated budget of $365,000 Canadian. But it never comes across as limited by a lack of monetary resources. That distinction is even more impressive when considering Cube was lensed in the pre-digital era. The cube is made up of a series of smaller cubes that make one large cube. Natali only had one cube set to work with. But he uses camera tricks and editing to give the sole set piece the feeling of endlessness.
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In addition to stretching his limited resources, Natali also proves effective at crafting a paranoid atmosphere. He imbues the film with paranoid energy from start to finish. The flick starts with a bang and never lets up. The tension continues to mount with each passing minute and never subsides.
The tension is additionally amplified by the interpersonal relationships between the members of the cast. Similar to the dynamic in Night of the Living Dead, the core characters disagree about everything. They can’t even get on the same page about how they ended up trapped in the cube, let alone how to escape. The film would be plenty intense without the dysfunction amongst the key players. But that piece further augments the tension level and ensures the viewer remains in a constant state of unease throughout.
Yet another aspect that makes Cube memorable is the effects work. More than 25 years on from release, the VFX hold up better than many films of similar vintage with larger budgets. Moreover, the deaths are imaginative, brutal, and effectively rendered.
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Speaking of the brutal deaths, they are a lot to take in. Although some of the characters are challenging to warm up to, each feels like a real person embroiled in an unthinkable situation. So, when we see them meet their demise, it’s poignant and invokes a profound response. That gives the picture an impressive emotional core.
All in all, Cube is an incredible feat of low-budget filmmaking that does an awful lot with limited resources. The paranoid intensity begins immediately and doesn’t subside until the credits roll. More importantly, the picture only shares what’s absolutely essential with the audience, ensuring a suspenseful and engaging viewing experience you won’t soon forget.
If you’re interested in checking Cube out you can find the film streaming on Tubi and several other AVOD platforms as of the publication of this post.
That’s all for this installment of The Overlooked Motel. If you’d like to chat more about under-seen and underrated films, feel free to hit me up with your thoughts on Twitter, Threads, or Instagram.
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