Claustrophobia. Anxiety about being stuck in a confined space is one of the named fears that doesnāt require a copy of the DSM-5 to recall. When you already have ghosts, ghouls, aliens, or monstrous humans coming after your characters, putting them in a confined space adds that extra layer of terror.
At its most intense, this isnāt just a temporary space to trap a protagonist, but somewhere that restricts the charactersā movement enough that nobody can just walk away from the danger.
John Towlson points out how Night of the Living Dead redefined the idea of zombies and used its primary farmhouse location as a pressure cooker for the competing personalities inside. Camille Moore writes on these characterizations and tensions, focusing on Duane Jonesās character Ben, and how foregrounding a Black man as the protagonist for a horror film adds depth to this landmark 1960s horror classic. Stephen Harper offers a thorough deconstruction of the film, looking at it through the lenses of genre, narrative structure, race, and politics.
Sometimes characters inadvertently put themselves in a confined space with what hunts them, like in The Descent. Tim Grierson considers how the literal entrapment of its main characters in a cave echoes the movieās themes about being trapped by grief. Dan Drambles breaks down the ways that lighting, cinematography, and impressively constructed sets all work to create a sense of claustrophobia for the viewer.
Sometimes the horror doesnāt come from supernatural monsters, but all-too-real human terrors. For example, being trapped in a bar by the Neo-Nazi drug dealers who own it. Petr Navovy directs our attention to Green Room and its contained narrative:
ā¦itās a steady ratcheting up until things explode so spectacularly backstage in that horrible little room that weāll come to know so well. The entire extended sequence which takes up the majority of the filmāof the band trapped, and repeatedly trying to make it out, only to have to retreat and return, more bloodied and in lesser numbers, over and over againāis exceedingly harrowingā¦
Spikima Movies continues our recurring argument that a contained horror film is only as good as the specific characters you trap together. The filmās intense focus on tension and character keeps the audience off-balance:
And sometimes, the horror is the location itself. 1997ās CUBE is a minimalist, low-budget horror film with plenty of scares and unsettling moments. Miss Posabule addresses the importance of character personality and backstory in this film about escaping a near-endless labyrinth:
Five strangers wake up in a strange room with no memory of how they got there. The room is shaped like a cube, and each wall has a door leading to another cube-shaped room. Quickly, as they try to escape, they realize that some rooms have deadly traps. In addition to avoiding the trapped rooms, they only have about three days before they all die of dehydration. Only by working together can they solve the mystery of the Cube.
Ryan Hollinger steps back for a wider view, considering the philosophy underpinning CUBEās story. The characters are unable to answer the larger questions of the story, leaving the viewer to try and unravel the mysteries of who built the Cube and why these people were left inside.
In all of these stories, trapping people in a tight space to force them to confront something horrific is a great hook, but the bait on that hook to keep the audience engaged comes down to putting specific, interesting characters inside.
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Previously on Innerestingā¦
In case you missed it, in last issueās most clicked link Vultureās staff call out 100 influential horror films, creating a timeline of terror.
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