Nerdy, low-budget sci-fi always wins me over. As corny and stilted as the acting was in 1997’s Cube, I can’t help watching it whenever I find it on TV. The story and set are minimal: a seemingly random bunch of folks find themselves imprisoned in a cube-shaped room, with portals on each surface opening to an identical room. They puzzle their way to a potential exit as their numbers dwindle due to some horrific booby traps. The producers tried to up the ante in 2002’s sequel Hypercube, but the result was an unwatchable mess of overblown CGI and pseudo-science. Fortunately, Cube Zero returns to the simple magic of the original, stripping things down to the psychology of the prisoners and their captors. As if admitting their mistake in going too needlessly high-tech for the sequel, the filmmakers use a heavy mix of modern and retro set pieces in this chapter. The effect is reminiscent of other paranoia-laced movies like Brazil and Delicatessen, and is no less disorienting here. Hypercube hinted at the mysterious Nazi-like group responsible for the Cube and its cruel experiments, and this time we see some of the conflicts experienced by the workers behind the scenes. Are the low-level button-pushers guilty of the same crimes as their superiors, or just innocently following orders? Just how many levels are there in this nightmare, and what is to be gained from one submitting another to pain and surveillance? More questions than answers are given (including my biggest: why wasn’t the third movie in this series titled “Cube: CUBED”??), and I’m eager for another follow-up.

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