10 Terrifying Horror Movies Set In A Prison

8. Cube (1997)

Last Shift
Lionsgate

The prison environment, being hidden away from public view, can be the backdrop for horrific experiments. In a horror story it raises a lot of questions; how did they begin? What is their purpose? And why are the characters trapped like a rats in a maze? Vincenzo Natali's Cube was one of the earlier efforts to venture into this territory.

Trapped inside a set of shifting rooms, the prisoners must navigate their way through a set of deadly traps in a bid to find their freedom. Of course, with the rooms resembling the titular shape, this is easier said than done. The backgrounds of each unfortunate soul on the inside creates a lot of intrigue for the film.

The belief that each prisoner was chosen for the experiment takes it beyond the blood and guts that other franchises would embrace in the 2000s. Yet Cube is still a suitably nasty series of deaths that looks into man's will to survive over his fellow brethren.

Cube would go on to provide some inspiration for the Saw franchise, which also trapped its characters in gruesome life-or-death scenarios. An interesting bit of trivia is that each member of Cube's cast is a reference to a real life jail.

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