Numerous forms of entertainment compete for the audience’s limited time and attention. However, it’s hard to top the spectacle of movies and what can be accomplished through the cinematic experience. Massive blockbusters and superhero cinema continue to dominate the box office. Still, there’s always been heavy love for the horror genre and the joy of experiencing communal fear as an audience.
Horror movies have so many ways to frighten people, whether it’s with terrifying supernatural creatures, masked killers, or the end of the world. Sometimes the lack of freedom can be more frightening than anything else. The claustrophobic feeling of being trapped can be overwhelming, and some horror movies beautifully tap into this anxiety.
10 Buried Sends The Audience Six Feet Under Without An Escape
One of the most horrific ways for someone to meet their end is to be buried alive underground. Several movies have explored this haunting death sentence to various degrees, but Buried is a movie that makes it the entire premise.
The entirety of Buried looks at a terrified individual’s attempt to break their way out of the coffin that they’re trapped in. Minimalist cinematography and lighting amplify the terror and claustrophobia experienced by Ryan Reynolds’ character. It’s hard to feel more trapped than with Buried.
9 Saw Locks Its Victims Into A Room And Forces Them To Solve A Horrific Puzzle
The Saw franchise helped bring in a new extreme brand of horror during the 2000s, and its lengthy franchise continues to live on in some capacity. Nearly all of the Saw movies feature a group of strangers locked in a dark prison of death games, but none are more restricting than the original film that starts it all.
The subsequent Saw sequels are so violent and messy that it’s easy to forget that the first film simply looks at two strangers who are locked in a bathroom with a corpse and a hacksaw.
8 Meander Is The Ultimate Endurance Test With No Room For Error
Meander is a recent release, and even though it's a French horror film, it's almost completely void of dialogue and instead leans into the claustrophobic imagery and intense obstacles that plague its main character.
Meander truly feels like the offspring of Cube and Saw. It depicts a woman's struggles to survive and advance through rooms of restrictive tubes, each of which threaten her death at every turn. Meander is a brutal experience, but it reiterates the undying strength of the human will and what people will do to survive.
7 Misery Explores Toxic Fandom And Twisted Power Dynamics
Stephen King is one of the most accomplished names when it comes to horror fiction, and his novels are responsible for some of the most iconic horror movies and television series of the past few decades. Not every Stephen King adaptation is a winner, but Rob Reiner’s Misery remains a timeless and terrifying classic.
Misery creates the ultimate trapped experience since its protagonist, Paul Sheldon, is confined to a wheelchair and at the mercy of an extremely unstable caretaker. Kathy Bates turns Annie Wilkes into one of horror’s scariest monsters, and its commentary on entitled fandom is decades ahead of the curve.
6 Green Room Is A Slow Burn Nightmare That Only Gets Worse
Jeremy Saulnier is a director who creates slow-burn experiences in tension, and Green Room is such an overwhelming and chaotic horror movie. The movie takes some time to show its hand, but eventually, a punk band finds themselves locked in a venue's green room while fighting for their lives against a gang of violent skinheads.
There's such genuine palpable fear present in Green Room, and Patrick Stewart's work as the lead skinhead is absolutely chilling. Once the horror kicks in, it’s an absolute gauntlet until the credits roll.
5 10 Cloverfield Lane Applies A Claustrophobic Approach To The Apocalypse
The Cloverfield cinematic universe has turned into one of the more curious horror and science fiction experiments of the past decade. The original movie reinvented both giant monster and found-footage movies in groundbreaking ways, and its successor, 10 Cloverfield Lane, is equally ambitious.
The majority of 10 Cloverfield Lane is confined to a cramped underground bunker as its occupants are told that the outside world has become contaminated and inhospitable. What plays out is a fascinating exercise in trust, perspective, and where the true monsters lie. The experience is only amplified by John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s exceptional performances.
4 Cube Represents The Ultimate Prison Sentence
Cube is a masterpiece from 1997, and without it, there would be none of the complex and grisly death traps that consume the Saw series. Cube begins with several clueless individuals trapped in a bizarre prison that’s made up of dangerous and mysterious rooms.
Cube is purely an exercise in survival as the victims struggle to figure out the rules that govern each of these rooms and why they’re stuck in this situation. It’s easy to mess up this simple premise, and Cube’s less polished sequels speak to this, but the original achieves the perfect tense, surprising energy.
3 The Mist Pits Man Against Monster And Lets The Imagination Run Wild
Frank Darabont is responsible for some exceptional Stephen King adaptations, and his feature film take on The Mist is an underrated classic that doesn't compromise its values. A community finds themselves confined to a grocery store after a suspicious mist consumes the town and seems to be a cover for deadly monsters.
The Mist is the perfect mix of horror and human drama, as the community gets divided within their temporary prison and the dangers outside grow more intense. It also has an absolutely gutting ending that elevates The Mist to another level.
2 Hush Is A Haunted Home Invasion That Strips The Audience Of Standard Comforts
Mike Flanagan is quickly becoming one of the masters of modern horror, with projects like Oculus, Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, and Midnight Mass all being horror highlights of the past decade. Hush marks Flanagan’s entry to the home invasion genre, but with a crucial twist.
Any home invasion movie is destined to be a confining experience, but Hush is especially isolating due to its deaf protagonist. She’s left with minimal resources and becomes even more prone to attack. It’s an exceptional use of both sound and space that makes the audience feel trapped and extra vulnerable.
1 Evil Dead Locks The Audience In A Quaint Cabin And Then Unleashes Its Evil
Evil Dead certainly isn’t the first horror movie centered on an ominous cabin in the woods, but it helped popularize the horror sub-genre in staggering ways. Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness push the campy horror series to progressively broad places. However, the original and the 2013 reboot are extremely isolating, claustrophobic horror films.
There’s a true feeling of helplessness as Deadites advance, and this simple cabin seems like both a sanctuary as well as a beacon for evil. They conjure a trapped atmosphere in a very oppressive way.