Complex but rewarding and under-appreciated horror movie

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2014)

A group of strangers are trapped in a giant maze made of cube shaped rooms with various deadly traps. They are trying to find their way out through the giant labyrinth of traps, riddles and twists which would make the makers of Saw jealous. The cube maze the characters are in represents this movie: Twisty, dense, complex and pretty darn confusing. This is a critically ignored movie which later gained a cult following and deservedly so. Like many B movies, it starts out shaky. Its characters leave you cold and it keeps repeating itself. It also has its various detours into generic B movie clichés which weaken the film and it goes from set piece to set piece without ever delivering a knockout punch. However, the film improves as it progresses. The characters become more developed, different layers are revealed and information is revealed in a structured and clever way. The set pieces get more and more heart in mouth and ultimately Cube gets as much as it can out of its generic but brilliant premise.
A mature decision was to leave much of what goes on ambiguous and the film thankfully doesn't have a major reliance on gore. It does get rather claustrophobic although after a while we get used to the setting. Cube is one of those movies where you're in the trap for the whole thing, and no sighting of the outside world means it feels a bit more artificial but this adds to the tension at the same time. The acting improves as the film goes on and although the cast still seem to be unknown, they do a good job. The director doesn't seem to be too prolific which is a shame as there's clearly plenty of talent here. The script doesn't do anything special but it tells the story decently and spits out the many twists with admirable effort. Cube is not a great movie but it is a very interesting one and a likable albeit sadly obscure effort. If you ever get bored of watching Saw, this would definitely be a good alternative and it's good for anyone who likes puzzles. I doubt you'll be able to solve the puzzle in this movie though.
7/10