Not For The Squeamish

Rating: 8/10 (30 March 2008)

I only intended to offer 6 or 7 stars, but its simple audacity moved me to give it more.
This is very much a 'what would I do in the same place' movie. And it's shocking. I begin to wonder if some people do not spend their spare time imagining increasingly bizarre and monstrous ways in which to kill. That is certainly the case here.
The set is fairly straightforward. It's a sort of prison-cell with trapdoor openings in all of the walls, ceiling and floor. Each gives access to a seemingly identical cell which may be illuminated in a different colour. That obviously keeps production costs to a minimum as one set fits all. In fact, the cells are not quite identical. Some contain the most diabolical booby-traps imaginable.
A group of inmates, or guinea-pigs wake and find themselves inside this grotesque maze and it becomes evident that their combined skills and abilities are their potential salvation. They work from cube to cube attempting to discover how to escape. It should also be mentioned that each cube is part of a complex in which they frequently move like a colossal Rubic Cube.
Naturally, tempers fray and conflicts develop. This is especially so when those who think they are inevitably suited to leadership and command, find that in truth they have little to offer, and instead the least likely members are the more needful. It's a clever little observation about human behaviour, but which is not very well evaluated or explored. The script and acting are all a tad stagy, but the oddness of the whole situation still carries the movie forward and the viewer watching.
There is no explanation or overview to their plight or the nature of the hell in which they are plunged, and this may disappoint those who like things cleared-up at the end. You take it for what it is; a bizarre idea, ordinary people, life and death.
Weird and Wonderful.