Opening sequence analysis – Cube
- 1. Opening Sequence Analysis – Cube Cube is a 1997 Canadian Psychological Horror film, written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. The opening sequence to the film begins with an extreme close up of an eye slowly opening and struggling to stay open, already giving a mystery as to why the character is in that state. We then get a high angle shot of the character lying on the ground in an unusual position and are in an odd location, suggesting he has been put there. The next shot is a low angle showing the character and behind him the whole background, which is revealed to be a very large cube. In the same shot there is a tilt showing how big the cube is. When the character opens the cube door on the side of the door, there is a close up of his face when he is looking through the opened, which is a look of shock, suggesting something surprising will shortly occur. An extreme long shot shows that on the other side of the door, there is simply another cube but with a brighter blue colour.When entering the blue room, the character opens a door that is on the floor, which also reveals another cube room, which we see his face and the cube in a worms eye view which shows how large the compound is. Upon entering another cube, the lighting immediately goes dark and quite low key, also with some red. This can insinuate danger or could foreshadow violence to come. We get a point of view shot from the character’s perspective which shows the whole room, which is much darker than the other rooms. Along with this, is the eerie
- 2. music when he enters the room which shows danger or something is about to happen. His facial expressions show fear and hesitation in a close up shot. In the next shot there is a long shot of him walking to go to the other side of the room, but we hear a whoosh sound and the man immediately freezes in shock. A close up of the uniform he is wearing reveals that blood is starting to show and it then begins to appear around his head in a close up. In the same close up shot, it shows a part of his head falling off. Then a close up shot of his hand falling to pieces, followed by a long shot of this whole body collapsing into pieces. Not long after the man’s body has fallen to the ground, in the same shot there is revealed to be a barrier with blood on it making the same sound as we heard earlier, making us assume that this killed him.