Cube review.
The Japanese remake of Cube is a fun watch whether or not you have seen the original. Telling an interesting story about generational conflict and redemption…this remake justifies its existence in ways so many others fail to.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Streaming exclusively on Screambox April 11
Cube
Directed by Yasuhiko Shimizu
Screenplay by Koji Tokuo
Starring Masaki Suda, Anne Watanabe, Masaki Okada, Hikaru Tashiro and Takumi Saito
Cube Review
Remakes can go wrong in many ways. Most of them just by being greenlit when they have nothing new to say. Those clear attempts to cash in on a known property are pretty much doomed from the start. Some good ones can slip through…mostly due to having a talented filmmaker at the helm. But we end up with a lot of A Nightmare on Elm Street’s and Psycho’s. Thoughtless retellings of brilliant originals. Cube isn’t that well known of a property…so it isn’t being made to cash in on anything. It is, however, a cult classic with some hardcore fans. There are two sequels to the movie already…one good and one not so good. The existence of a subpar sequel should make a remake go down easier. Not that it worked for Ghostbusters.
The truth is that the remake era of horror in the 2000s has given the whole concept a bad name. Without remakes we wouldn’t have The Fly, The Thing, or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Even the remake era gave us some good stuff like The Hills Have Eyes and Dawn of the Dead. We also got a metric ton of worthless ones. Now just hearing the word is enough to make you cringe.
Cube is on the better end of the remake scale. It has more in common with Friday the 13th (2009) and Evil Dead than a more straightforward remake. Evil Dead takes the concept and puts new characters into it. Friday the 13th (2009) takes some of the best beats of the early movies of the series and puts its own spin on it. What all three have in common is that they could get away with just being another numbered sequel and fit in just fine. Despite the remake aspects…they are movies that take what you already love about the series/original and give you more of it with a new group of people at the center.
The basic plot is the same as the original. A group of people find themselves inside of rooms inside of a giant cube. Some of the rooms are boobytrapped with everything from fire to lasers…and picking the wrong room will lead to instant death. A series of numbers outside of each new room may provide clues as to what lies ahead.
The thing about Cube is that it’s fun. The tension of watching strangers try and work together to traverse unexpectedly dangerous terrain works here as well as it ever has. The characters have some backstories that we learn throughout their journey. Some are deeper than others. One character is left intentionally vague. The theme of the movie is conflict between the different age groups. We have one older character (Ando), one young character (Tashiro) and the rest are around their 30s. The character we learn the most about is Goto…who has a tragic backstory and develops an intense need to protect Tashiro.
The generational conflict plays out in some surprising ways. Ways that, unfortunately, don’t always completely ring true. The moments that do work, however, are fantastic. While you are free to interpret the ending in any way you want to…it is very tied to the idea of differences between the generations. People who can easily learn to change, people who can’t…and people who still have a fighting chance. The concept works best in the end. The relationships built up and the character drama pays off quite well.
Given that almost all the movie takes place in nearly identical looking rooms…Cube looks great. The kills are fun, the danger pops up at unexpected times. Fans of math will be happy to know that the search for prime numbers is on full display again here. Basically…it’s a Cube movie. Despite its remake label…that’s a very good thing.
Scare Value
Remakes are hard. Fans of the originals are often annoyed at their existence and never give them a fair chance. Cube deserves that chance. It takes the set-up from the original and drops different characters with new backstories into the maze. If you are a fan of the original and enjoyed the central concept…there’s no reason to dislike the idea of revisiting it in a fresh way. Consider the titular cube as its own subgenre. The Japanese remake is a very good new entry.
3.5/5
Cube Link
Streaming on Screambox April 11
Cube Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Cube, check out some other remakes: Children of the Corn and Terror Train
