Tubi Tuesday: Dave Made a Maze (2017)

The highly original and visually stunning “Dave Made a Maze” is stellar in concept and execution and well worth getting lost in for a spell.

Booby traps. Minotaurs. Paper bag puppet people. A maze that’s a lot bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. Sentient origami cranes. A cardboard model of lady parts that turns you to cardboard if you touch it and so much more are in store in this week’s Tubi Tuesday. We’re talking about 2017’s Dave Made A Maze.

It’s best to go into this movie blind, as any information beforehand could ruin the absolute joy and wonder of this amazingly creative film.

The key information to know is that, just as the title suggests, Dave made a maze — and boy, is it one hell of a maze! More accurately, you could call it a labyrinth, one that would certainly leave a smile on the faces of Jim Henson and David Bowie.

Armed with only that knowledge, it’s best to go to Tubi, find it, and click play. Trust me on this one.

However, since we are in the business of reviewing horror movies, further information and a batch of spoilers are up ahead — so be warned. Exit now if you’d rather enter this Maze full of untainted wonder and amazement.

For those of you still here, let’s get into it.

With his frustrated girlfriend, Annie, out of town for the weekend, struggling artist and man-child Dave makes a maze out of cardboard in the couple’s living room.

He then proceeds to get lost in it.

Annie comes home to find the maze and hears Dave calling for help from the inside. Her first reaction is to knock the small maze over and set Dave free. But he warns her that it’s much bigger on the inside and that destroying it would be catastrophic.

Annie calls a few of Dave’s friends, who call a bunch of random strangers. Before long, everyone — including a documentary film crew — is headed into the maze to save Dave.

The first thing they discover is that, indeed, it is much bigger on the inside. Much, much bigger. And not just by a few feet. There are miles and miles of tunnels and hundreds of rooms full of deadly traps and obstacles.

Dave claims he started building from the middle and worked his way out, but somewhere along the way, the maze grew a mind of its own and started building itself.

The maze even went so far as to create a giant muscular minotaur to protect itself.

It’s clear the set design folks were art majors, as Dave and his friends wander around the maze in and out of rooms, each more creative than the next. 

One room is a forced perspective room, another has aspects of MC Escher’s Penrose Staircase. And another sees the main characters transformed into brown paper bag puppets.

Throughout the 80-minute runtime, the creative features of Dave Made a Maze never repeat and never get dull.

Much of this film plays out like a fantasy comedy, but there is enough blood and gore to make this one a horror film — even if the blood and gore are done with silly string and party ribbons.

Fans of elevated horror may find the characters a little one-dimensional, but this is not a character-driven film. Instead, it’s a set-driven film, and the maze is clearly the main character. That’s ok because, oh my, what a character it is!

Check out this absolutely amazing film today, now streaming for free on Tubi.