“Damn! We’re in a tight spot!”
While all of the 3quel franchise films plug up the multiplexes, William Friedkin’s claustrophobic and sweaty little thriller is more or less being ignored. Even if Bug is not for everyone, particularly those who think they are going to get a special effects creature feature (this was strongly evidenced by the many walk outs during the screening I was at) this is a shame. Bug reminded me just how tight and vicious and down right atmospheric a film can be when set in a single, small location. And thus, clearing the cobwebs and the creatures away, this weeks ScreenAnarchy-O-Meter will highlight nasty things in small places.
Often a single location (or ‘one room’) movie is the result of the adaptation of a stage-play. Sidney Lumet made two spectacular films from confined plays, one of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Days Journey into Night and the other (a nearly forgotten and totally underrated little gem) from Ira Levin’s Deathtrap. Other fine stage-play adaptations include the trio of corporate/sales morality plays David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, Roger Rueff’s The Big Kahuna and the more recent Argentinean/Spanish co-production El Metodo which I love to mention whenever I can.
The budgetary constraints of a film is another reason for a single location film. Sam Raimi’s one-two punch of spam in a cabin - for scares in Evil Dead and laughs in Evil Dead II - immediately come to mind. The recent French supernatural horror flick Malfique squeezes a lot of juice out of a very, very small room and sparing use of special effects. Perhaps the chief example of low budget inventiveness is included as number four in the list below.
In my completely arbitrary little world, something like Alien, The Thing, Event Horizon or all those underwater sci-fi/action flicks made in 1989 are just, well, too creature-y. Das Boot would be on the list if so much of the extended version of the film were not off the U-Boat. I was one of the few who actually liked David Fincher’s Panic Room, but it seemed wrong for this list, being both too obvious and maybe a tad too slick. I just like my closed-quarters cinema salty, I guess.
Worth mentioning is the trio of Hitchcock films that would clog the list, because the man was just pretty darn good at what he did – keep the viewer perpetually engaged. I can only assume that he made closed-quarter films for the simple challenge of doing so, rather than the source material or budgetary concerns. The camera in Rear Window never leaves Jimmy Stewart’s apartment and wrings the maximum tension of events going on with Grace Kelley across the courtyard. The confines of the small apartment and the long takes of Rope well serve the pace of that films mystery until Jimmy Stewart figures it all out. And of course Lifeboat’s title aptly describes its location.
So here are six films that use claustrophobia, domestic terrorism or moral crisis in the smallest of square meterage possible:
6. Dead Calm – Other than the opening few minutes, all of Phillip Noyce’s 3 character thriller takes place on two boats in the middle of the ocean. While Billy Zane terrorizes Nicole Kidman on a small Yacht, Sam Neill is left breathing from a pipe in an old sinking boat with more than one dead body on board. Just watching the water come up to Neill’s eyes while he frantically breathes and tries to come up with a way to get out of the situation is worth the price of admission alone. This film was a great showcase for Billy Zane to get his creep on, and made Nicole Kidman a star to boot.
5. Funny Games – I have to question the motives of Haneke remaking this already perfect film for American audiences who do not like to read subtitles (while still keeping an open mind that maybe Haneke is up to one intellectual trick or another with this act of redundancy). Nonetheless, the 10 minute sequence where two characters try to remove their bonds in Funny Games is a truly masterful one. The whole film takes place in and around a very nice summer home where the owners are not allowed to leave after extending some kindness to clean cut closet-case psychopaths. (See also Hard Candy, Naboer and The Tenant for stylized terrorizing of homeowners)
4. Cube – The ultimate use of a single set. Cube is a science fiction puzzle-box film where Vincenzo Natali and his production crew only had to rotate the camera and change the colours on the walls to imply a massive prison of traps and torture devices. Of course, the real enemy is the fear and paranoia of the trapped character archetypes and how their personalities clash in the tiny little room. It is inventive, mysterious, full of genre-y goodness and well deserving of its reputation.
3. Chasing Sleep (aka Insomnies) – Probably the least seen film on this list and is one not to be missed. Jeff Daniels gives a real knock-out portrait of a man descending into madness in his decaying home. Occasionally visitors pop by (and pop pills) while Daniel’s character constantly makes phone calls to locate his missing wife. He is weary yet unable to fall asleep. The atmosphere on display in this tiny film is claustrophobic and creepy, but not in a jump-scare kind of way. There is more of a get under your skin kinda vibe of someone who has lost their way and does not have a clue why. If you can find this little diamond in the rough, it is well worth the effort.
2. 12 Angry Men – I mentioned Sidney Lumet above, and this film is clearly his masterpiece. A film shot almost entirely in a Jury sequestering room of people talking, yet this is edge of your seat stuff. It’s not creepy or unsettling like the other films on this list but the simple trick of moving the camera marginally tighter on the actors as the film goes on is a damn effective one.
1. Death and the Maiden – There is an edge to nearly all of Polanski’s films that comes partly from the man’s infamy as a survivor of the Holocaust, Charles Manson murdering his spouse, and allegations of taking sexual advantage of a minor. Aspects of these elements come into play in this three character drama which takes place mainly in a isolated house at the edge of a cliff. One of his darkest films (and that is saying much) which examines the guilt and revenge of a victim of torture, Death and the Maiden takes some aspects of Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (another film with some pretty heady one-room sequences) and examines them closer. Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley claw at each other while a helpless Stuart Wilson tries to figure out what exactly is going on. After being trapped in the house for much of the running time, when things move out to the cliff, the yawning openness of the scene is humbling. This film is too good to be ignored.
