CUBE ZERO

Canada, 2004, 97 minutes, Colour.
Zachary Bennett, David Huband, Stephanie Moore, Martin Roach.
Directed by Ernie Barbarash.

The Cube series has a special place in regard by horror buffs, solvents fiction buffs, terror fill buffs.

The first film takes place entirely in a giant cube, in moving rooms which have cube designs everywhere. Each cube has cube designs as well as doors which can lead to safety with the right interpretation or to disaster and death. A group of people find themselves in the cube, sometimes cooperating, always with the will to survive, with a dominant policeman, Quentin, taking charge but ultimately becoming a destroyer himself. And the end of the film is quite nihilistic.

The second film is situated in a cube which is called a hypercube. Once again there is a group of strangers, sudden deaths, moving rooms. Once again, the group help each other, clash with each other, some killing some of the others. However, this time there is an explanation, a focus on a large weapons factory, and experiments, and the elimination of those who do go the tests.

The third film, Cube Zero, goes once again inside the cube but it is the story of rescue, with some scenes outside the cube but offering some interpretations of explanations of the whole series..

1. The third in the trilogy? Drawing on the other films? The idea of the cube? Innocent people trapped? Being tested? Attempts to survive, to escape? The new ideas, of focusing on the guards, the authorities and the technology experts, the attempt at a rescue?

2. The visuals, the rooms in the cube? After, colours, exits? The contrast with the basement, dingy, the television screens, the filing cabinets – echoes of old-style compared with the technology of the cube? The musical score?

3. The initial focus on the person in the cube, attempted escape, death? The gory aspects of the woundings and deaths?

4. The group, the older man and his trying to reason, going into the room, the hoses on him, his skin and bones?

5. The others in the group, Haskell, his military background, his not remembering, black character, the clash with Rains, her accusations about the military? The large man, his helping with the escape, his being scratched and wounded, his transformation, Haskell dropping him and killing him? The woman, her contribution, attempted escape, her death?

6. Rains, with her daughter, the chase, being taken by the soldiers, finding herself in the cube? The attack on Haskell and the military? Her contribution, trying to help? The letters and their puzzle, commas, disappearing?

7. Wynn and Dodd, recruits, following orders, Wynn sketching, playing chess with Dodd, winning, knowing the moves? Dodd’s exasperation? The various sketches, of the victims in the cube? Of Rains and her daughter, his explanation that the dreams were transmitted and sketched? His character, no background? His suspicions? Looking in the files, not finding Rains’ pink slip? Questions, doubts, going into the elevator, going into the cube, encountering the group, the suspicions, the attack? His telling Rains about herself, knowing that she was a political agitator? His tips to help, the explanations, the cutting of the power, 10 minutes to re-setting? Haskell, his being re-activated with the chip in his brain, his attacking the group, his finally be pulverised with the re-set?

8. Wynn and Rains, the attempted escapes, down the elevator, jumping into the water? The pursuit in the forest, Wynn being wounded, Rains escaping?

9. The visit of the doctor, his one eye, his associates in their suits, working on the technology? The confrontation with Dodd? The search for Wynn? Dodd and his decision, disconnecting the power, asserting himself, refusing to obey, his being killed with the powder?

10. The attempted reconnection, the idea of Haskell’s chip, the deadline and the re-setting?

11. Wynn, captured, bound in the hospital, the taunts of the authority, Wynn asking them to wait, glad that Rains escaped, the cut in his head, his being mentally disabled, his gestures – similar to those of Kazan in the original film?

12. A glimmer of hope with Rains and her daughter? More nihilistic approach with the role of authority, ruthless exercise of authority, the victims in the cube?