Cube

First time director Vincenzo Natali’s low budget thriller is a tribute to the ensemble cast performances as well as his direction. The action takes place in what appears to be an experiment in human survival as a select group of people wake up contained within the walls of a cube, twenty-six identical rooms wide and twenty-six high. How they got there is not made clear but finding their way out is the whole premise of the film. The skill-sets of this particular group of people aid or hinder their survival - for example, an old thief works out a way to find out if a room is booby-trapped or not - and survival is at stake because the cube kills and this is shown in scenes of visceral gore. The production design by Jasna Stefanovic, music by Mark Karven and some very believable special effects add to the tense but dreamlike sci-fi mood of the film. Human behaviour under stress provides the viewer with a gripping and edgy personal drama - even though ‘participants’ have been de-humanised by being used like guinea pigs in a maze. Cast includes Nicole DeBoer, Nicky Guardagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson and Maurice Dean Wint.