HALLOWEEN: The Best "Twilight Zone" Movies - 12: "Five Characters..." / Cube

In the past two years, I've celebrated Halloween by judging the most Lovecrafty movies ever made and the best Stephen King adaptations.  This year, I'm looking at thirteen good-to-great horror flicks that mirror classic, creepy episodes from The Twilight Zone.  Whether purposeful or accidental, these movies showcase the same mystery and imagination that made Serling's series so fantastic.

For a fun time, watch the episode and movie of each entry back to back - you decide the order.

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...Five improbable entities stuck together into a pit of darkness.  No logic, no reason, no explanation; just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand...

12. "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" / Cube

"Five Characters..." (wri. Rod Serling, dir. Lamont Johnson, Season Three)
Watch It on Hulu

Cube (dir. Vincenzo Natali, 1997)

What's So Similar?

Imagine being dropped in an empty room.  There's no exit... or if there is, the means of getting out are unknown.  Imagine not being sure why you're there.  Is there a purpose, or are you just being toyed with?  Very quickly you learn about the people stuck with you.  Very quickly the room becomes a prison.  And what you learn is that no one knows what brought them there, or what might be on the outside.

What's So Different?

Serling's story deals with five costumed characters: a ballerina, a clown, a hobo, an army major, and a bagpiper.  And none of them have any memory of a life before falling into their prison.  Despite that, the army major yearns to escape, and he comes up with a plan that just might catch him a glimpse of the big world beyond - in this universe, there's a definite answer.  Meanwhile, Cube doesn't have a clear-cut solution to its prison or the world outside; it prefers ambiguity.  Additionally, it gives its characters a knowledge of who they were before they got cubed - ordinary people, mostly.  Their descent into acrimony, distrust, and murder feels far removed from the humanism of "Five Characters in Search of an Exit."

What's So Special?

The immediate mystery.  Because the characters never know more than the viewer, there's an easy sympathy and equal desire to know just what in the h-e-double-hell is going on.  "Five Characters In Search of an Exit" has the benefit of brevity, but it also has an engaging episode-long "argument" between the gung-ho Major and the depressed Clown.  Cube doesn't have anyone as likable as Serling's story, but it carries the same claustrophobia and mystery, and it amps up the potent allegory even further, becoming a microcosm of human existence.  The characters define their identity, bring their talents to the problems at hand, and their environment - like the world - is as inscrutable as it is deadly.

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All of The Best Twilight Zone Movies...

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11. "Judgment Night" / Triangle
12. "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" / Cube
13. "Twenty-Two" / Final Destination