10 Overwhelmingly Claustrophobic Movies

No matter how many times I watch the trailer for Pandorum, I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly claustrophobic. This is odd for two reasons: 1) I’m not normally claustrophobic and 2) the trailer’s only 2 minutes long. Basically, I’m doomed when it comes time for the film’s release on Friday. So, thinking of other films with that same sense of small spatial relation, I compiled a list of the 10 horrific movie scenarios I’d hate to find myself in:


10. Kill Bill: Vol. 2

I realize its just one sequence from Quentin Tarantino’s 2004 film, as opposed to the rest of the films on this list, but it’s just too intense to not mention. Uma Thurman did exactly what we all would do: panic, accept death then try to figure out a way to escape. That’s mainly why this scene is so intense to watch. That and the fact she’s in a fucking box under six feet of dirt.


9. Jason X

Listen, I know how cheesy this movie is, but when you think about I don’t think anyone would want to be trapped on a ship in outer space with a superhuman serial killer on board. No fancy schmancy gun or laser is going to save you from Über Jason and his über machete.


8. The Sentinel

Living on your own can be hard, but living with a bunch of creepy people in the building that everyone else claims not to see? Yeah, that’s an odd situation. While the option to leave is there, the tenants in the building essentially force you to become an agoraphobic, creating a whole new level of fear.


7. The Cell

The viewer gets a double whammy of claustrophobia in this 2000 movie starring Jennifer Lopez; between the victim literally being trapped in a cell that’s slowly filling with water and another character being trapped in a pseudo-virtual reality with a homicidal maniac. The visions are disturbing, but having no idea where you are and where you’re able to go is worse.


6. Event Horizon

While this movie bombed at the box office, it was successful in destroying my ability to eat spaghetti after unsuccessfully trying to eat while watching Event Horizon. Trapped on a spacecraft that holds a portal to hell? Check. Horrific hallucinations? Check. Not my idea of a good time.


5. Night of the Living Dead

George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a horrible scenario. Period. Zombies are bad; we know that. But being stuck in a farm house that’s completely isolated in the middle of a large field adds to the terror. But being able to watch them gang up on you from miles away and knowing you can do next to nothing to save yourself is my nightmare. My skin already hurts thinking about zombie bites.


4. Saw

I will openly admit that the original Saw totally messed with my head the first time I saw it. It was 3 a.m. and I was sick and watching two guys in a small room trying to come to terms with dying - it was just morbid. Would I cut off my leg and leave, only to end up dying from blood loss or would I just starve to death and suffer in other numerous ways? I honestly cannot tell you what I’d pick.


3. [REC]

This Spanish horror (remade in the U.S. a year later as Quarantine) really toyed with me because it involves my two nemeses: the government and illness. Both things leave you completely helpless once they have you in their clutches, so the combination makes me want to cry just thinking about it. You can try to board your doors up as much as you want, but those sick fuckers will find you no matter what if you don’t starve to death first.


2. The Thing

UGH! John Carpenter knows just how to frustrate me! If you don’t get killed by the scariest damned aliens ever, you will die from frostbite/ice-cold suffocation. There is zero option of what to do here because survival is going to be tested no matter what. The fact that you’re completely alone on a humongous continent makes this even more of a helpless situation. This is why I don’t travel.


1. The Descent

You know why I love this movie? Because it reminds me how grateful I am to be a boring person. Sure, spelunking looks like a damn good time…that is until the mutated humans of the underearth come to eat your face. A new cave means unknown territory. Being underground means limited air/food supply. The Descent should really mean The Death. What. The. Hell.