One Room Movies

I really enjoy movies that take place mostly – or even entirely – in one room or confined space.  What I find interesting about those movies is how they manage to create atmosphere and suspense and develop interesting stories solely based on the strength of their actors’ performances and character interaction, most of the time on a very low budget.  Here I’ll list a few of my favorite movies of this sub-genre and I’ll try to include both obvious and less obvious choices.  Of course there’s a lot more, so feel free to list your own favorites in the comments section.

Rear Window (1954): One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most well-known classics.  A reporter (James Stewart) suffers a leg injury and has to stay in his apartment wheelchair bound for a few weeks.  He passes his time by spying on his neighbors with binoculars and at some point suspects that there has been a murder in one of the apartments.  So, he tries to unravel the mystery with the help of his romantic interest (Grace Kelly).  Hitchcock as always masterfully builds up suspense and puts the viewer in the position of the reporter through a series of first person views.  The entire movie takes place in Stewart’s apartment and the apartments that are visible from its window.  One of the best films of the genre.

Exam (2009): A nifty little British thriller that involves 8 candidates giving an exam to determine who will be hired to work for a mysterious corporation.  However, when they take a look at their exam papers, they find out something very interesting and confusing.  Saying anything else would be giving away too much, so suffice to say that it’s a fun little movie that’s well worth watching., and is packed with nice little surprises along the way.

Finder’s Fee (2001): Another small, low budget film featuring some good performances by James Earl Jones, Ryan Reynolds and Matthew Lillard.  Tepper (Erik Palladino) finds a wallet in the street and invites its owner to his apartment to pick it up.  The same night, his friends come to his apartment for a game of poker.  He also finds out that the wallet contains a winning lottery ticket.  Again, I won’t give away more about the story, but this is also a fun little movie that gradually builds up suspense and takes full advantage of its premise.

Eraserhead (1977): OK, this might be stretching the boundaries of the sub-genre a little, but I believe David Lynch’s fantastic debut deserves a spot on this list.  A man named Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is invited for dinner with his girlfriend and her parents, where he learns that his girlfriend is pregnant.  Shortly afterwards, she gives birth to a disfigured monster-like baby.  His girlfriend and the baby move into his apartment and the rest of the movie takes place there.  The movie is full of surreal imagery and features a haunting soundtrack.  It plays like a bad nightmare and is filled with allegories on sexuality, existential philosophy and subliminal fears of parenthood.  I won’t say much more, but I will say that it involves a disfigured woman who lives in the radiator and a severed head that is used as a material to create erasers.  There are many theories about the meaning of the movie, and sometime I’d like to write a post with my personal take on it.  Overall it’s a pretty disturbing movie that you should definitely watch if you’re in the mood for something different.

The Shining (1980): Kubrick’s horror classic based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.  Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is hired as the caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, so he moves there with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and his son (Danny Lloyd), where they will stay alone for the winter.  However, there might be some more sinister forces at work there.  Almost the entire movie takes place in the hotel.  Kubrick’s direction is amazing as usual, and he manages to evoke a feeling of claustrophobia and isolation through clever use of his camera and other creative visual and auditory tricks.  For example, there are some pretty creepy scenes where the boy navigates through the corridors of the hotel on his tricycle where these tricks are used to full effect.  A true horror classic that I love watching every now and then.

Reservoir Dogs (1992): Quentin Tarantino’s debut redefined the crime genre and has had a huge impact on cinema.  After a failed diamond heist, the criminals who participated regroup in an abandoned warehouse, where they begin to suspect that someone among them is a rat.  Most of the film takes place in the warehouse, except for some flashback scenes.  What makes it particularly interesting is that we never see the heist itself and the action scenes are minimal, but we learn everything we need to know through dialogue.  With an amazing witty script and memorable characters, this is a gripping film that commands your attention from start to finish.

12 Angry Men (1957): Well, I saved the best for last.  Sidney Lumet’s masterpiece is about a jury of 12 men who are faced with what seems to be a clear-cut murder case.  However, one of the jurors (Henry Fonda) is skeptical and makes the group think a little more about it.  Throughout the film we follow the process that leads to various shifts of opinion and interesting group dynamics.  Each character is well developed and has his own character traits, which always affect their thought process and sometimes even get in the way of their search for the truth.  This film captures everything that makes this sub-genre so interesting by building suspense and tension through strong performances and creative camera work.  This is quite possibly the best film of the genre, and it holds up very well to this day.  If you haven’t seen it already, give it a watch.  You will be pleasantly surprised.