Cube (1997) - Directed by Vincenzo Natali

What makes the movie Cube (1997) scary? In my opinion, it is the hopelessness and uncertainty of how the trap worked. That, beyond anything I talk about here, is the scariest part of the movie. Yes, these few were lucky enough to find each other in the maze, but at what cost? The machine was evil in itself, but the most horrifying part of anyone trapped in this situation is the base instinct of humans, and the horror of being trapped here with someone else. You want to survive and will do anything to accomplish that, but who else in your group will do the same? Would they go as far as you, even if it means killing others off? Each person in Cube had a history, a life before it, dreams, dark secrets. There is a real possibility no one would ever have been able to know everything about everyone else, even if they were stuck there forever.

There is no bloodthirsty, twitching, crude excuse for a monster in Cube. Instead, the monsters are introduced less than five minutes into the film. Our main characters are the monsters. As previously mentioned, though they all want to work together, they are unpredictable because humans are unpredictable. The monsters are beyond their control because of the situation the individuals themselves have been placed in. Rennes last words before getting acid sprayed on his face are “You’ve got to save yourselves from yourselves.” (14:49). This is the theme for the rest of the movie. The characters have to be aware of their own faults, while also juggling the dangers of the other character’s unknown histories and the faults that lie within.

The characters have vices and secrets. Helen is a smoker, Quentin is a pedophile, and David keeps quiet about his involvement until the last moment. Joan and Kazan are the only innocents, which makes their escape the highest priority in all eyes, except for Quentin. The separation, or “otherness” falls into the single character’s life before this.

Quentin is a cop, so he is prone to exhibit violence. He beats up David often when he fails to give clear answers on why he could be trapped in the Cube, and again when David admits to being a part of the trap’s construction. (40:21) Kazan and Joan are both highly intelligent but cannot fight the way Quentin can. They are tasked with checking the safety of the doors and keeping the group moving, eventually finding the exit (1:08:10). Helen and David fall somewhere in the middle. Helen for most of the movie is a mediator, and focuses on keeping everyone level-headed. She is the person who initially clocks Quentin as an evil man, calling him out for  having “a thing for young girls” (52:20). David sits back and follows for most of the first part of Cube, but saves the day at the end by keeping Quentin away from Joan and Kazan, so they can try to escape. 

When Kazan enters the story, he is immediately seen to be mentally handicapped, earning the swift nickname “retard” from Quentin. He murmurs to himself, flicks his fingers, and calls out when he's excited. Immediately, he’s a liability. When the group enters a blue room, a color that Kazan stated he was excited to find, it’s apparent that he might need to be left behind. In a room full of noise activated blades, does the group risk taking him along, or do they leave him behind to get him once they find the exit? Everyone knows the latter promise is a lie, and so he comes with them, nearly killing Quentin. In any other space, Quentin certainly wouldn’t treat someone like Kazan as openly cruelly as he does, but when you aren’t sure if you’ll see the light of day again, what else is there to do? 

For the majority of the film, there is a fear of what lies ahead, on the other side of each door. Maybe it is aliens, like what was mentioned at the start (9:44). This catches the viewer's attention, and why shouldn’t it? The space is seemingly endless, with horrifying traps, odd lighting choices, and interesting wall art. The brief mention had me considering aliens for almost all of the movie, just from the opening mention. 

As the movie progresses, the neat, clean uniforms the prisoners are in slowly are ripped, torn, used, and bloodied. The characters themselves lose their humanity, glasses break, skin is stained by blood, and, one by one, the characters drop. The use of minute body horror is well done, as something more over the top would have taken away from the film. Instead, we see the characters lose their humanity piece by piece, or die before they reach a point of depravity. 

Rennes is the first death. Thinking all rooms' killing devices are activated by motion, he has moved from room to room throwing his shoes in to trigger them, before following and repeating the process. He is killed with a poison spray and dies at the others’ feet. The next to die is Helen who, after exposing Quentin as the monster he is, is inconspicuously dropped off the side of the wall of cubes. Quentin claims she slipped from his grasp when, in reality, he threw her to her demise (57:48). The group moves along, and once Joan discovers the end of the line, the four move through the cubes. Now that Quentin has been revealed to be a pedo, Joan is protected by Kazan and David, who know Quentin needs to be split from the group. David traps Quentin in a door while Joan and Kazan get a jump on solving more doors, and drops him through the floor, where Quentin is knocked cold (1:15:25). Continuing on, they find the end, and are greeted by sunlight. While rejoicing, Joan and David are stabbed by a bloody Quentin, who chases Kazan out the door. Before he himself can escape, David holds Quentin by the leg, causing the wall and the cube to split him in half while it moves along. In that final act of heroics, David dies on the floor by Quentin’s bottom half and Joan’s body, leaving Kazan to escape.

The main message that stuck with me was a line from Helen. “We’re still human beings, that's all we’ve got left.” (46.08). This is powerful, because in a situation like Cube, what else is left but one’s own humanity? Do we fight to escape and save ourselves, or do we fight to save the ones we love? It’s a horrifying question to ask, as its answer will depend on the person and reveal who they are deep down. It is a good question, however. After all, what monster is more sickening than one you hold inside you?