Vincenzo Natali is an underrated director who has spent a career writing and directing underrated films. His first directorial effort is 'Cube' - a thinking-man's horror that plays on the Aristotelian theory of 'classical unities'; the philosopher's rules of drama state that it should follow his three unities: action, space and time. 'Cube' adheres to this; the story follows one single plot without distraction of subplot - the survival and escape of its central characters reflects 'action'. Its claustrophobic use of a single setting - which takes place entirely inside the mysterious Cube - and its ambiguous pacing (how long are they in the cube?) also reflect the last two unities respectively. As a result, 'Cube' is a tight, well thought-out horror that, despite some heavy mathematical concepts, never gets bogged down in its own logic. The characters appear to be your typical nineties horror tropes but as the story develops, each person's role in the group dynamics is challenged, making this as much a character study as a survival story. Its biggest success however, is the setting itself. The Cube's effects - including the energy-draining blandness of the rooms' lighting - takes as much a tole on the audience as the characters. Remember that for the duration of the film the audience too is stuck in the Cube, searching for an escape from the relentless monotony just as much as anyone onscreen.
