CUBE

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Starring: Nicky deBoer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett

A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a structure filled with lethal booby traps.

Take a bunch of strangers, each with their own idiosyncratic skills and abilities; thrown them into an unfamiliar environment from which there is no escape; set them a series of tasks to keep them on their toes, and keep them under constant observation. If all this sounds like the premise for some cheap-ass Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall game show, then you’ve obviously never seen Cube, Vincent Natali’s intriguing 1998 Twilight Zone-style psychological thriller. 

The disintegration of First Independent, one of the UK’s few remaining autonomous film distributors, left their extensive catalogue of acquisitions in a state of limbo. First Independent (originally called Vestron Pictures), like many companies who joined the video industry early on, built much of their success on genre titles (The Company of Wolves, Lair of the White Worm, etc). As the years rolled on, their horror output dwindled (especially after being purchased by the more puritanical HTV) but the company was still run by people who recognised a decent scary movie when they were offered one.

It’s reassuring to find some of the company’s titles becoming available again. The UK Region 2 DVD comes with a commentary track by the director and co-writer Andre Bijelic, and a transfer in widescreen ratio of about 1.85:1, (contrary to what it says on the sleeve, though, it’s not enhanced for 16:9 sets). The sound mix is mainly used for ambient atmosphere, and is adequately served by a digital stereo presentation. The disc also contains a theatrical trailer, and a handful of design sketches and storyboards. The Region 1 disc features more of this material, as well as a couple of short deleted scenes. Where’s a ha’porth of tar when you need one?

The best available version is the French Region 2 disc, from Metropolitan Film and Video. It's the first release to present the film with anamorphic enhancement, and for that reason alone fans may want to consider an upgrade. The new disc is a DVD-9 (with twice the capacity of the previous versions), and the presentation is a big improvement on the merely letterboxed UK version, which now seems quite smeary in comparison. The film itself is presented in French or English (both at almost twice the 256kbps bitrate of the UK version’s English track) with optional French subtitles.

The French disc would seem to have all the additional supplements of the US and UK versions (the commentary track, the production designs, storyboard and photo’ galleries, the storyboard-to-film comparisons (some synced up with the soundtrack or appropriate clip) and the deleted scenes, presented in low-resolution video, with optional commentary). A French version of the trailer on the UK disc is also included, as well as a version in English with French subtitles. A handful of French trailers, including ones for The Astronaut’s Wife (Intrusion) and The 13th Warrior (Le 13ème Guerrier), are also included.

The French disc trumps the US disc with a three-minute interview with the director (this featurette is notionally in French, but Natali’s comments and the film clips are in English, with French subtitles). The icing on the cake, though, is an astonishing coup de grace: Natali’s 1996 short film about three people (including Cube’s Hewlett) trapped in a lift, Elevated (Le Court-Métrage). This, too, is in English with optional French subtitles. The French disc not without flaws however, (including some lip-synch drift that also is also apparent on the UK version), but these are minor, and not a factor to be seriously considered.