A metaphorical nightmare

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2008)

Imagine... you wake up in an unfamiliar, almost alien, place with no recollection of how you got there. No memory as to why anyone would put you there. Then you find out there are lethal traps in certain rooms and all the rooms looks exactly alike...
That is about the extent of what this film tries to explain. The rest of it is up to the viewers and the keen ones will undoubtedly notice many hints beneath the surface narrative as to what is going on, but in the end, this is best seen as a metaphorical nightmare. Whether it is one that H.P. Lovecraft would have or one that George Orwell would have is really beside the point and it can easily be seen either way or even both at the same time. It is that lack of explanation in a well made film that can render it powerfully symbolic on many levels. It is a nightmare that scares many people and scares each one in their own way. Interestingly it is not really the film that scares you directly, it scares you indirectly. It is your own mind that scares or better yet, frightens, you as it searches for possible answers as the protagonists search for essentially the same thing.
"Cube" is so effective, because it pulls you right into what is going on screen. It forces you to think like the people on screen and in identifying with them, you identify with their fears and thus the film gets you.
Lastly, consider the opening shot. That could be anyone waking up. --- 9/10
BsCDb Classification: 16+ --- violence