Absorbing, Tense, Smart Sci-Fi Thriller

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2000)

Vincenzo Natali's Cube is a thoroughly absorbing, tense, nail-biting, and wholly original sci-fi thriller soaked in adrenaline.
Cube is about a handful of people who awaken to find themselves in a maze of cubes that are identical but for their colors: some are orange, green, red, or blue. As they move about the cubes, they discover that some are equipped with deadly, sadistic traps.
The power of Cube lies in its seemingly simplistic storytelling: these people don't know how they got there, why they are there, who put them there, or what the whole thing means, but with no food or water, they decide they better find a way out, and fast. The setting provides a tense, clausterphobic nightmare, with the strange, darkly lit walls of the cubes covered in odd, almost alien figures and writing, as if they were some kind of extra-terrestrial hieroglyphics. The simplicity of the entire production design makes it a wholly believable, stomach-churning realistic situation. They're aided by a fantastic script that truly makes the most of the paranoid characters and overwhelming setting.
The cast of relative uknowns does an excellent job of conveying the paranoia and fear apparent in being stuck in an experiment that is a both sickly logical and illogical. While the script is busy unraveling the mystery of the maze they're in, it doesn't neglect to show us why these people should survive. The characters, much like the maze itself, are multi-faceted and filled with traps of their own. If seeing them attempt to survive the demonic cube maze isn't enough to invoke suspense, the film douses itself with characters who are as rigid and filled with hidden danger, giving the audience a double dose of terror.
In a film that takes place entirely in the same surroundings, it's amazing how effective Cube is in building a mountain of suspense in what appears to be a very constricting area. The film could have turned into monotony: two hours of it shot in the same scene. Director Natali uses this to his advantage, however, and delivers a truly terrifying, gripping, almost suffocating film dripping with enough tension to fill more than a few vapid horror and sci-fi films. With an effective cast, a script with brains and originality to spare, Cube is easily one of the most inventive and utterly frightening sci-fi films ever.
9 out of 10