Write a story about two people in a room. For the entirety
of that story, these two never leave that room. There is nothing in it except
for themselves. There is nothing that they can do except interact, either
through basic conversation or something more… physical. There might be flashbacks to their lives before entering that room, but otherwise, this is where the story takes place. This one room with just two people in it.
Sounds boring, right? Well, it’s one of the more
classic tests of great filmmaking: Take that conceit and make it interesting.
And writer/director Vincenzo Natali, when he isn’t making genre flicks about bioengineered
rape shenanigans (seriously, Splice is a weird movie), has made a career out of
pushing that idea to its breaking point. From the theological twists of Cube to
the existential dramedy Nothing, whose most memorable scenes show two people in
a void of bright white nothingness, he knows how to do a lot with very little
scenery. If there was any Stephen King story he'd choose to adapt, of course
it’d be this one.
