HORROR TEN SPOT: Top 10 Claustrophobic Flicks

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

Ryan Reynolds may or may not bring us a DEADPOOL movie, and definitely seems like a good fit for his stint as GREEN LANTERN, but in the meantime he’s logged some time underground in the tight and nasty looking thriller BURIED. Claustrophobics beware.
Since I’m always looking out for my fellow horror fans, I got to thinking what are the movies that are best avoided if you fear being trapped in small spaces. Might seem like not that big a deal, but if a phobia can rip the backbone out of Charles Bronson in THE GREAT ESCAPE then I give it due respect.
So take a journey with me to enclosed spaces and hard escapes. Maybe bring along a paper bag if this sort of thing freaks you out. And share some of your experiences in film that made you feel totally boxed in by spitting bullets below.

WARNING – MAJOR SPOILERS (AND UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS) AHEAD!

1. THE DESCENT

Y’know, this damn thing doesn’t really play fair. Long before any mutated humanoids start causing trouble, you’ve got a group of spelunkers already stressed out of their gourds because of rock tunnel cave-ins, interpersonal anger and injuries. Then while dealing with it all in spaces not much wider than a human body, the intrepid explorers also become prey. I’m not claustrophobic and this movie had me slinking down in my seat. Well played Mr. Marshall.

2. INSIDE

This flick messed me up a good bit and remains one that I only recommend to people with a warning they probably won’t like what they see. But the tension that INSIDE achieves is dizzying given the seemingly innocent setting. A pregnant woman is at home alone. Should be the safest, most sacrosanct scenario around. But it’s not. A vengeful woman, motives unknown, utterly terrifies the expectant mother, and us, offering no mercy and no chance of escape. Adding to the sense of claustrophobia is the fetus eye view of the exterior abuses taking place. You will most likely find yourself sick to your stomach, both literally and figuratively.

3. THE VANISHING

I’m gonna go ahead and tell you to skip this one if you haven’t seen the film because you shouldn’t have it spoiled for you and I gotta talk about the ending. I am, of course talking about the original film, not the disappointing American remake (from the same director oddly enough). Here we’re given a man trapped in an existential manner, unable to escape from the thoughts of what happened to his lady. And because of that he finally gets physically trapped, buried alive by the psycho who did it to his woman. His only exit from the ignorance that chewed at him was at the expense of his own life. Awful stuff.

4. THE THING

Trapped and in mortal danger is pretty much how the crew of this ice station goes through the whole damn movie. You can’t escape what’s trying to kill you all because there is nowhere to go. Your options are basically freeze to death, get killed by an alien, or go crazy. I’d personally pick crazy, but then you still get to fall victim to one of the other two. This is the type of movie that makes your guts twist because you know from the outset, no matter what the crew tries, they are all screwed.

5. ALIEN

All horror flicks on some level work on claustrophobia, because they try to create situations that seem inescapable. Alien starts things off right with a face hugger. Can’t get any more trapped than that. Then you find out that you’re going to be spending the rest of your very short lifespan trapped in a spaceship with an apex predator that will find you and kill you wherever you go, including stowing away with you on a small escape craft. Feeling the hairs on the back of your neck rise up yet?

6. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

No matter how you try to reinvigorate the genre, zombies have never been particularly scary as individuals. It is the unrelenting might of their massive numbers that eventually take you down. As NOTLD established, you can run, hide, fight, but at some point you will get trapped in a house, or a mall, or a car. You will make a mistake and there will simply be nowhere to go because the zombies surround you and will not stop for any reason until they take you down. Have fun.

7. OPEN WATER

You may be thinking, “Hey, I thought this was about fear of confined spaces and they got stuck in the ocean.” Well, let’s drop you in the middle of the Pacific and see if that doesn’t feel like a confined space. You’re trapped exactly where you are, facing an unrelentingly static visual field, and just to make things worse you have an entire hungry half of the world that you can’t even see, but you are stuck with. If that doesn’t make your skin crawl at the sheer boxed in nature of it then you are one hard ass hombre(tte). The main thing I hate about this flick is how possible it seems.

8. EVENT HORIZON

Trapped in space f*cking sucks. Trapped in space with the only exit being a vortex to hell is, I would imagine, infinitely worse. There are two main issues that seem to come up in claustrophobic scenarios – 1) the physical reaction to the fear; 2) the mental breakdown and paranoia brought on by the stress of the situation. You’ve got both of those is spades here. And while on land there may be the illusion of possible escape or rescue, in space there is literally no where safe to go at all.

9. FEAST

I’ll grant you that if you must be trapped by unknown beasties in a possibly apocalyptic scenario, then being trapped in a bar is probably the best of all worlds. At least for fans of this site. You’ve got food, you’ve got booze, you’ve got babes. Problem is you’re still trapped in a relatively small space with a lot of people freaking out and an aggressive opponent trying to get in. So before you claim this is the way you’d like to go out, think about what that would really entail.

10. CUBE

So for no apparent reason you find yourself trapped in a series of seemingly identical rooms, interlocked with no discernible pattern, and oh yeah, the only break in the scenery is the variety of traps each room possesses to kill you. I’d say this Rubik’s Cube from hell qualifies for the list. My only question really is if this phobia is made better or worse by the presence of other people. Because as much as lonely sucks, this flick does a good job of showing how more people around you can just make the fear and panic amplify.