One-Sheet Wonders! – The original poster concept for CUBE (1997)

Brought to life with a very meager budget on a soundstage in Toronto, Canada, Vincenzo Natali somehow created a tight and uniquely suspenseful genre classic with his debut feature, CUBE. Taking its cue from Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1940’s play, “No Exit”, a handful of strangers awaken in a bobby-trapped, three-dimensional maze and must band together to somehow find a way out.

The answer to their quandary is smartly done considering the film’s shoestring budget. However, much like our previous film in this segment, FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2 (1981), the original poster that was intended for its release was purportedly nixed because it revealed more mysterious details than the powers that be wanted to divulge.

I did some research of this film’s posters over the years, and it seems all of them either give up too much of the plot’s magic or are boringly simplistic in an effort to retain its secrets. It was surely an unenviable task for the promoters of CUBE to walk that line where you can engage audiences without eroding the finer details of the plot. In the end, I think they should have used this take, if nothing else because it’s a startling image that makes you wonder what the hell is going on inside that thing…

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