Meander (2020) Movie Review

Meander (2020) IMDB

Meander (2020) movie poster

Meander is a French sci-fi film from 2020 directed by Mathieu Turi. The film starts with a woman laying in the road who needs to move out of the way of an oncoming car. The woman ends up accepting a ride in the car with a man and they begin a conversation. Things go south (no spoiler) and the woman ends up passing out. She wakes in a strange, small room with a device attached to her wrist and dressed in techy full body suit.

The majority of the movie becomes a series of obstacles that she must overcome to escape the maze of tunnels she is stuck in. Walls are moving, countdowns are happening, water is flooding, tunnels are heating up, etc. It is a 1 person version of The Cube but is happening tunnels instead of rooms. Add in a strange creature (possibly an alien?), and some flashbacks of her life and we get a science fiction movie. The movie is well shot and will give you a feeling of claustrophobia.

Through trial and error we get a woman trying to solve the maze, using clues others have left for her to find the exit. Does she? You will have to watch to find out !

Interesting movie, but a bit too weird for me. 4.8 / 10

Check out the trailer below.

The Night House (2020) Movie Review

The Night House (2020) IMDB

The Night House (2020) movie poster

A woman has recently lost her husband to an unexpected death. Since we find out how 15 minutes in I feel like I do not need to say spoiler, but if you want to skip to the next paragraph do that now. It was a suicide that he did using a gun, and that is how the story picks-up, post death.

The wife, our main character is in shock about this and as she is dealing with the loss she finds a book among his things with architectural sketches of their house, which happens to also include sketches of a variety of mazes, including one that looks like a 3D level of a house:

The Night House maze scene

Then some weird things start happening, like some odd dreams and visions. And also we get a woman who is searching for answers to what happened among the things he left behind. This includes a book called Caerdroia that features a labyrinth on the cover. And the wife officially starts her own investigation into her husbands death as is common in the movies, but never happens in real life.

The Night House maze scene - Caerdroia Labyrinth book

Things get weirder from here. And at some point you will wonder what is going on. But you will like it. This is psychological horror surrounded by a mystery and it does it well.

I rate it a 7.2/10.

Check out the trailer below.

Cube Zero (2004) Movie Review

Cube Zero (2004) IMDB

Cube Zero (2004) movie poster

I have previously reviewed the movie Cube which I enjoyed. The Cube concept is interesting and it starts out with a group of people waking up and don’t know where or why they are where they are. They end up being in an intersecting maze of cube rooms, each with it’s own particular booby trap that can kill them. Their goal is to survive and escape. This movie, Cube Zero, is the third in the trilogy. I love the ominous saying on the movie poster - “There must be an exit”.

The second movie in the trilogy is not reviewed on this site so I will do it now as a public service message.

Cube 2 : Hypercube (2002) IMDB

Cube 2 Hypercube (2002) movie poster

It is terrible. Avoid. 3.6/10.

Okay now that I wasted our time on that back to our main movie, Cube Zero. What I like about this movie is that as they tell the story we learn the who and the why of people coming to be in the Cube. We also have a storyline that looks at the perspective of the workers who are managing the maze on a day to day basis. We get insight of what they think about the situation and how the Cube is monitoring the participants. They speak about the morals of what they are doing, which eventually leads to one of the workers entering the Cube to help save a person they think is there incorrectly.

If you found yourself watching the original movie and having a lot of questions, many of them are answered in this movie, but you’ll need to watch it yourself so this can be a spoiler free review.

I was entertained. I give it a 6.0/10.

Check out the trailer below.

Oh, Hi there. This movie has been out awhile, and that means you can usually find it streaming for free, like on YouTube, available through this link.

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Anonymous (2011) Movie Review

Anonymous (2011) IMDB

Anonymous (2011) movie poster

I watch a lot of movies. Like a lot. And sometimes I seek out movies to watch that deal with labyrinths and mazes, but sometimes I am watching and I get a surprise. Anonymous was a surprise !

The overall story takes place in the UK during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. While portions of the movie occur in flashbacks the timeline centers on the end of her life and what will happen with her successor. This includes a rebellion against her, the Essex rebellion, and behind the scenes political machinations that accompany it.

But it is also a story about William Shakespeare and whether or not he is the writer of the plays attributed to him. This movies poses that the writer is actually the Earl of Oxford who cannot put his name of the plays for political reasons. Who really wrote the plays ? Before watching this movie I had no idea that there were a group of people called Anti-Stratfordians who believe Shakespeare was not the actual writer of his works. It is considered a fringe theory but you can read about the controversy on Wikipedia if you want to take a deep dive.

The movie is included here because it contains a maze ! Slightly over an hour into the film, the Earl of Oxford gets into a duel inside a hedge maze ! Check out the (very foggy) scene below that shows the maze from above !

Anonymous (2011) maze scene

The period piece is well acted and has wonderful costumes and a fun story. Director Roland Emmerich has also been the writer/director of many big budget Sci-Fi movies that you know (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and Stargate).

I give this movie a 6.9/10.

Check out the trailer below.