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‘Cube’ is a Creative Cult Classic That Still Stands Out After 20 Years

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Canadian horror films have a longstanding tradition of being innovative, operating within a small budget to achieve great effects. Cube – which premiered 20 years ago at the Toronto International Film Festival – took a simple concept with a simpler set design and created a cult classic.

Director Vincenzo Natali kept the costumes to a basic uniform to allow viewers to learn about each character by their actions, not by their appearance. Starting with a blank slate, we’re drawn in to the story to understand who these people are and what they’re capable of.

We rely on the script to communicate their personal history as well as their flaws, which in turn gives more opportunity for each character to hide behind their relative anonymity. The stranded strangers have no option but to trust each other, but really, what do they know about one another? What secrets could they be hiding?

via IMDb

The whole film focuses on the unknown dangers of the situation. Our group is trapped with no understanding of why they’re there or how they got there. Their only hope is a rough theory about the numbers branded on each new room. Each room is identical (aside from the colored panels), giving no indication of what horrors lie within. Tensions run high as the group grows anxious and tired, clashing at every turn.

It is revealed that each person present holds some knowledge that will assist in the group’s escape, but not everyone in the group is suited to the necessary teamwork. Cube quickly turns into a character study that observes how each personality handles the pressure. While some are predisposed to help one another, providing support and comfort when needed, others have a more selfish approach.

via IMDb

It’s – again – a simple concept, but with expert execution. We have the prevailing mystery of the cube mixed with unavoidable personal conflict. All we’re presented with is what’s in the script and what the actors are able to communicate. There’s no flashy set, no distracting costumes, just the story and the constant danger.

Cube was actually just shot in one room, with a partial cube built for when the cast was shown to be looking through from another side. By using lighting panels to change the color of the cube, they were given the flexibility to re-use the set over and over, but still change up the look so it didn’t grow stale. It’s a brilliant use of a limited budget (the 90 minute film only cost $365,000 to make).

via IMDb

Each creative trap presents a different challenge; while it’s possible to navigate through some rooms, others only offer an unavoidable and gruesome death. The opening sequence is particularly thorough in killing off its victim.

Cube has spawned a series of sequels and there’s talks of a reboot – though, like the characters in each film, it seems to be trapped in development Hell. While I don’t anticipate seeing a remake of the cult classic anytime soon, today is as good a day as any to revisit the film that started it all.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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