Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 7.0 | 25/32 | set entirely inside one location
CW // Blood, Viscera, Murder, Misogyny, Mental Illness
Alderson’s eyes flutter open. He finds himself in a cube-shaped room. He is wearing a jumpsuit with his name printed on it. Each of the six surfaces has eight panels with intricate designs resembling maps or circuits, all glowing white. The ninth panel in the center of each surface has a hatch. Each panel interconnects with bars that allow him to climb up the walls.
Alderson pulls open one hatch. He looks inside and sees a room nearly identical to the one he is in, but it glows blue. When he steps away, the hatch automatically closes. He opens one on the floor. This room, also identical, glows red. The third room glows brown.
Alderson enters the brown room. He moves towards another hatch. A swoosh, and he freezes. Razor wires cut through his body. His body collapses into a bloody pile of cubed meat. The bloodied trap folds up and returns to its hidden panel.
Quentin climbs through the red room into the white, where Worth slowly awakens. Another panel opens. Ready for a trap, Quentin pulls the person out and pounces on them. But it is Holloway, another prisoner. A distress call from the brown room. Quentin opens it to see Leaven standing there. He tells her to stop — he knows there’s a trap. He jumps in and aids her through it. Finally, Rennes emerges from the blue room.
— Holy cats! Holy, holy cats!
The five prisoners combine their collected knowledge to navigate and hopefully escape their bizarre prison. But human qualities, like trust and socializing, might be a more pressing problem than the prison itself.
The extreme close-ups remind me of Terry Gilliam. It also feels a little like Primer in how they base the prison’s design on mathematics despite its physical impossibility. The “people in a booby-trapped prison” concept has big Saw vibes. And, of course, the design is very similar to Borges “Library of Babel.:
That said, this movie is more surreal horror than sci-fi, so looking for a deeper meaning or all-encompassing solution may leave you disappointed. The movie’s original concept included surreal aspects, but the budget limited it.
The gore is pretty brutal and good enough for the creative kills.
The sound design is effective in sustaining the horror atmosphere.
The dialogue is the weak link in the movie. The idea drives much of the film, but human relationships are crucial to the conflict.
Also, they have an “autism is a superpower” plot point that is… unfortunate.
Overall, the movie is not outstanding, but it is plenty entertaining for its concept. I guess I’m watching Cube 2: Hypercube.