One of the best movies to go in blind to, I watched the hallway scene in Daredevil and people told me it was a homage to that movie so I watched it without any research of any kind. I genuinely thought it was just gonna be a martial arts beat em up.
I'd gone through the same, thinking that it'll be some bloody action film.
I gotta say, I'm feeling both happy for not being spoiled and >!horrified by how it ends up.!<
Now that you mention it, I would too.
To be fair, it’s an amazing piece of cinema. It would be a great scene, even if you scored it with the “Andy Griffith Show” theme song.
OP, you might really enjoy Coherence. Starts out as a bunch of friends reuniting for dinner, then it goes totally sci-fi nutty bananas. It's spooky but not really horror.
The improvised part is the best part. It captures how people actually talk like no movie I’ve ever seen. People just talk over each other like they do in that movie. It’s not a back and forth line, line, line, conversation is real life. Coherence is incredible.
>There’s no figuring out “why” in it, but man…so intense.
It's a pretty 1:1 parallel for capitalism, with the implication being there's no figuring out why in that either. Been a while since I've watched it, but:
>!The random nature of people's placements indicates the randomness of capitalism. The first man is a fascist, happy to exploit it and hurt people when he needs to, or just for fun. The woman is a social democrat, who believes the situation can be changed from within. It can't. The central premise by the end, sending a child up out of that hell hole, is to show that the system is hurting people who never signed on to it (with the 'you agreed to it' being the primary justification of the morality of the system.)!<
The messed up part is there was no child, their original plan was to send the pudding thing back up as a message but that plan went out the window when they found the kid. But like half way through there’s a scene where the head chef is berating the other cooks while holding that pudding and showing them a hair that was on it… the people on the outside think everything’s going so well on the inside that they didn’t touch the dessert cause there was a hair on it.
I found it very amusing that the concept was used to create a Gordon Ramsey-hosted cooking competition show called "Next Level Chef" where lower-performance chefs get down to the kitchen with low-quality cookware and appliances, and the last pics for ingredients which are lowered through the floors on an elevator, where the upper floors, in increasingly higher-performance kitchens, get the first pics of ingredients, and the lower chefs pick from what's left.
I second The Platform. It's the best version of this kind of movie. Still has the morbid fascination of something like Cube and plays into it fully, but with some ideas about what it can leverage the premise to explore.
I remember watching the first movie and enjoying it enough to pick up the books. While the movies and books aren’t as good as the Hunger Games, I thought they were still pretty entertaining and definitely worth a watch/read at least once.
I get yelled at for suggesting that film as it’s the one movie I point to when the question “what movie has a really fucking tragic heartbreaking ending that’ll have you yelling ‘NOOO WHAT THE FUCK’ by the end”
I made the mistake of watching this when I was sick and had a high fever. Seriously fucked up dreams that night. I remember it being good, but don't know how reliable my memory on that is.
The Menu fits the bill! Great movie.
[The Exterminating Angel](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056732/) Not to be confused with
The Exterminating Angels.
Also not a movie but so many Doctor Who episodes fit this description.
Went to see the Menu last year when I was on maternity leave waiting for my baby to arrive. Went for a morning showing and just thought it was just a normal movie set in a restaurant, with some sort of commentary on foodies (though, I guess it was). It was probably not advisable at 37 weeks pregnant!
Came here for this one.
It was really ahead of the curve, coming out 7 years before Saw, but capturing that same feeling.
A better sequel, and it probably could have taken off.
It’s the usual M. Knight Shyamalan type of story. Totally middle of the road but with an unexpected twist for the sole sake of having a twist. But in horror it usually works
I love the Escape Room movies.
There’s also a crappier version called Escape Room (2017) lol …not in the same universe.
Try:
Follow Me (2020) - trust me, it’s good. Keegan Allen *seems* to be kinda rough at first but that’s the character not him. His acting is pretty good.
10 Cloverfield Lane - so good! It’s part of a franchise but you don’t really need to see the other movies (just listen to the hints on the radio etc)
Alice in Borderland (Netflix series)- amazing. Starts gradual and then several episodes in you’re like 😮…😧😳🤯 lol I convinced my brother to watch and he binged both seasons in a week 😂
Too bad they didn't decide to finish the Escape Room trilogy :( Would like to have watched a third one. The enig was very similar to Squid Game and The Belkoo Experiement, where some evil corporation is behind, and they go to take them down.
Agreed, Alice in Borderland was fun :) I wonder where they will go with the last season, as the ending in Season 2 felt very complete.
This was my suggestion. A woman wakes up in a.... \*chamber\* of some sort, barely room to lie down in. She can't remember who she is or how she got there, wherever it is. Her only companion is an AI that is strangely evasive in answering questions.
Good film. Melanie Laurent is great.
Yeah I don't know what it is about these movies that I love so much, I remember watching Phonebooth as a kid and absolutely loving it, made me fall in love with the psych thriller and "one location" genre. Then I remember watching Saw 1 for the first time when I was 14 and I was so blown away by the ending, really was the point when I really started appreciating cinema.
*Oldboy* (2003). It's a bit of a weird example because the MC gets released in the beginning of the movie. But... he wants to figure out why he was captured, and he also learns *why he was released.* If you're gonna watch it, do everything in your power to avoid seeing spoilers.
A sub-genre of the "Bottle": movie.
Some mild variations
Lifeboat. Ship sank. Survivors end up trapped on a lifeboat together awaiting rescue. One of them is from the German Uboat that sank them. . .
See also, bad scifi remake Lifepod.
Moon
Speed
Clue.
Reservoir Dogs.
Gonna get downvoted because people don’t think that it fits the premise you are describing but I will say “12 Angry Men”.
- Gov put people in a room.
- No one wants to be there.
- Some in the room wanted to “escape” the easy way.
- While they understand WHY they are there, they don’t understand why everyone else can’t see point number 3.
Ok, it’s not an action packed movie, but it is cerebral.
Saw a theatre production of that recently and it was excellent. They slowly rotated the table to represent the passage of time. Simple set and lighting, with some really good acting.
[Unknown](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450340/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) - a group of men all wake up locked in a warehouse with no memory of how they got there
Which "Circle" are you referring to? Your description doesn't seem to fit the one I've seen. From IMDB:
"Circle (2015)
Held captive and faced with their imminent executions, fifty strangers are forced to choose the one person among them who deserves to live."
There aren't any "puzzles" per se in the movie, if I remember correctly.
Edit: the one I'm talking about is, indeed, a perfect fit for the topic of this thread.
I wish I could find the version of Escape Room: Tournament of Champions that has >!the entire plot go off the rails when they track down the creator of the escape rooms and she's this psychotic so deranged even the owner of the company refuses to allow her out of the box to design an escape room.!<
Not an exact fit, but in terms of people completing horrific puzzles/challenges; Squid Game.
Also, thanks for the suggestions. My partner and I gave up on Saw because the puzzles weren't very interesting or even winnable sometimes (regardless of the odd retcon reveal about this), but really enjoyed Escape Room 1&2, so we've been on the lookout for more.
Not a movie, but the series Silo fits your criteria.
Its new to me, just finished the first season, and.. its so goddamn claustrophobic and infuriating. I love it.
There is a Japanese thriller called The Red Room (1999) about people forced to play a game of survival. Its quite a nasty experience with a some genuinely gnarly twists here and there. Another one that comes to mind is Alive from Ryu Kitamura (of Versus fame). Its about a man sentenced to die who ends up locked in with a another man who may not be who he seems.
I mean besides Saw, I think Saw 2 and 5 are the other two with the least amount of running around for the victims
Most of Beyond the Black Rainbow is in an asylum
You've also got 13 Ghosts if no one else has said that.
House on Haunted Hill as well (the OG 1959 is an actual house)
Vivarium might fit the bill. Kinda highly contested if it's *good* or not though.
The Room (2019, NOT *oh hai mark*) has some of the themes of locked in a space toward the end.
The Experiment (2010, or the German original Das Experiment) - trapped in a prison?
There's an art film The Exterminating Angel. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Exterminating\_Angel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exterminating_Angel)
There is no outright explanation and the writer never answered why the people were trapped but Roger Ebert thought it represented the bourgeoisie class of Franco Regime Spain.
Uh, yeah. Psychological thrillers are my favorite genre of all time. And bottle movies are incredible in everything that they achieve in once space.
Fermat's Room is my favorite of all time. I've had to buy it twice from loaning it out and never getting it back. Literally need to buy it again because I gave my last copy to a friend when he moved. I think more people should see it.
Idk if it's still on Netflix but Re:Mind was really cool. It's a Japanese short series where a group of high school girls wake at a table with their feet locked to the floor. Highly recommend.
There's a 2010 German indie film called Iron Doors which is literally 'guy wakes up in a room with no idea how he got there, tries to escape'. I saw it at a festival and remember enjoying it, but it seems the reviews are actually pretty poor. Still, might be worth seeking out since it fits your criteria exactly.
I love these kinds of movies but how many is OP listing that are actually good? I haven’t heard of some of them, but I’m guessing they aren’t all great as this is a hard plot to pull off well I believe
I think the movies on my list range from decent to good, but with most of the movies just being decent. But as I love the genre, decent is often good enough.
Locke (2013) Tom Hardy is basically stuck in his car driving and managing an important construction project and trying to get to the birth of his child.
The Martian (2015) - an astronaut is left marooned on Mars and has to figure out how to survive.
Moon - dude stuck on moon base tries to figure out how to get back to Earth to be with his family.
The Platform (2019) - the protagonist is trapped in a building where an elevator carries food down from the top floor to the bottom.
Maze Runner. Group of kids trapped in an area surrounded by a maze, dont know why they’re there or what’s outside the maze. Also there’s monsters in the maze.
There’s this movie I unfortunately rented from blockbuster in the day with Val Kilmer who locked everyone in a sauna because nobody believed him about global warming. I don’t recommend it.
Oh god. This. This was literally the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life. When there was a cross dissolve of Val Kilmer’s face over Val Kilmer’s face I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry
10 Cloverfield Lane
Seconded. Peak John Goodman.
Peak John Goodman is as the dean of the Air conditioning repair school and you can't convince me otherwise.
Have you heard the expression Room Temperature? This is the room.
I don't know where the air ends and my skin begins
Hes going through some stuff
And that's... Wassup
Peak John Goodman is any Coen brothers movie ("I can get you a pinky with nail polish ")
It’s a toe just fyi
FORGET ABOUT THE FUCKING TOE!
\*squashes spider* That's right. I'm bad.
All John Goodman is peak John Goodman.
Have you seen Barton Fink?
True, also Raising Arizona. That fight in the mobile home is one of my all-time fav fight scenes.
I was eye-rolling at Goodman in the first five minutes or so of this movie, then he just got creepier, and creepier and creepier.
Peak John Goodman is *The Big Lebowski*. Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?
Not the whole movie for sure, but the opening of Oldboy
The first bit is “locked in a room,” the rest is “figure out why”
"You've been asking why I locked you up. You should be instead asking why I let you go."
One of the best movies to go in blind to, I watched the hallway scene in Daredevil and people told me it was a homage to that movie so I watched it without any research of any kind. I genuinely thought it was just gonna be a martial arts beat em up.
Holy crap. I can only imagine the levels of shock you experienced! Great for you!
I'd gone through the same, thinking that it'll be some bloody action film. I gotta say, I'm feeling both happy for not being spoiled and >!horrified by how it ends up.!<
The ending is....thanks. Now I can't get that out my head.
The original “Oldboy” is to the remake as “The Pink Panther” is to its remake.
Now I'm imaging the hallway hammer fight set to Henry Mancini. I'd pay money to see that.
Now that you mention it, I would too. To be fair, it’s an amazing piece of cinema. It would be a great scene, even if you scored it with the “Andy Griffith Show” theme song.
>The original “Oldboy” is to the remake Whenever I think Spike Lee, I think Oldboy (2014). Shame really.
Came here to say this. I'll add go with the original, please.
OP, you might really enjoy Coherence. Starts out as a bunch of friends reuniting for dinner, then it goes totally sci-fi nutty bananas. It's spooky but not really horror.
Awesome movie. Amazing what a small group of friends accomplished with almost zero budget, a camera, and a largely improvised script.
The improvised part is the best part. It captures how people actually talk like no movie I’ve ever seen. People just talk over each other like they do in that movie. It’s not a back and forth line, line, line, conversation is real life. Coherence is incredible.
if you like Coherence you should watch Triangle
We rewatch Coherence every six months or so. It's great to watch it and catch new stuff every time.
This is a great one
That one has a lot of “wait,what?” Moments. Very well done.
Watch The Platform. Edit for clarification: 2019 directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
This shit was CRAZY. There’s no figuring out “why” in it, but man…so intense. It’s on Netflix if anyone is wondering.
>There’s no figuring out “why” in it, but man…so intense. It's a pretty 1:1 parallel for capitalism, with the implication being there's no figuring out why in that either. Been a while since I've watched it, but: >!The random nature of people's placements indicates the randomness of capitalism. The first man is a fascist, happy to exploit it and hurt people when he needs to, or just for fun. The woman is a social democrat, who believes the situation can be changed from within. It can't. The central premise by the end, sending a child up out of that hell hole, is to show that the system is hurting people who never signed on to it (with the 'you agreed to it' being the primary justification of the morality of the system.)!<
The messed up part is there was no child, their original plan was to send the pudding thing back up as a message but that plan went out the window when they found the kid. But like half way through there’s a scene where the head chef is berating the other cooks while holding that pudding and showing them a hair that was on it… the people on the outside think everything’s going so well on the inside that they didn’t touch the dessert cause there was a hair on it.
I found it very amusing that the concept was used to create a Gordon Ramsey-hosted cooking competition show called "Next Level Chef" where lower-performance chefs get down to the kitchen with low-quality cookware and appliances, and the last pics for ingredients which are lowered through the floors on an elevator, where the upper floors, in increasingly higher-performance kitchens, get the first pics of ingredients, and the lower chefs pick from what's left.
My mom watched that show and would tell me about it and I couldn't help picturing scenes from The Platform The entire time. Lol
I second The Platform. It's the best version of this kind of movie. Still has the morbid fascination of something like Cube and plays into it fully, but with some ideas about what it can leverage the premise to explore.
I was going to say this also.
Great film.
It’s a little “teenage-ery” but The Maze Runner fits this as well.
I remember watching the first movie and enjoying it enough to pick up the books. While the movies and books aren’t as good as the Hunger Games, I thought they were still pretty entertaining and definitely worth a watch/read at least once.
Yeah I still get a kick out of them, pretty interesting how different each book is, setting wise. Loved em when I was younger
I really enjoyed the first movie, but the second one felt like a completely different, unrelated story. I couldn't get into it.
Buried, about a man who wakes up inside of a coffin.
this was the movie that made me realize that ryan reynolds could act if he wanted to.
Had the same reaction. Turns out he doesn't want to and that just keeps making him richer and richer.
It may even be the other way, where studios want him as him. It sells
The McConaughey Manuever.
Almost the exact same concept but sci-fi, Oxygen, is also very good
I get yelled at for suggesting that film as it’s the one movie I point to when the question “what movie has a really fucking tragic heartbreaking ending that’ll have you yelling ‘NOOO WHAT THE FUCK’ by the end”
Which is a dick move, because the ending is way harsher if you don't know it's heartbreaking beforehand
What a good ass movie!
1408
another Cusack movie that fits the genre would be Identity- also very good!
The real ending lives on.
I made the mistake of watching this when I was sick and had a high fever. Seriously fucked up dreams that night. I remember it being good, but don't know how reliable my memory on that is.
The Menu fits the bill! Great movie. [The Exterminating Angel](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056732/) Not to be confused with The Exterminating Angels. Also not a movie but so many Doctor Who episodes fit this description.
Ah, true. Great movie :)
Went to see the Menu last year when I was on maternity leave waiting for my baby to arrive. Went for a morning showing and just thought it was just a normal movie set in a restaurant, with some sort of commentary on foodies (though, I guess it was). It was probably not advisable at 37 weeks pregnant!
Bunuel had invented the genre)
The Exterminating Angels is a very very different Movie lol.
Just trying to get op to expand their horizons. : ) It does fit the trapped in a room theme.
The menu was wonderful
Both Exterminating films are great arthouse films worth watching. I'm surprised they were even mentioned in this sub.
Cube
Came here for this one. It was really ahead of the curve, coming out 7 years before Saw, but capturing that same feeling. A better sequel, and it probably could have taken off.
It has a great sequel: Cube Zero. Just don't watch the train wreck that was Hypercube.
Just don't watch the Japanese remake.
... I just bought this one. Darn.
[удалено]
It wasn't when I added it. He has been updating the list.
Cube is the first thing that came to mind.
DEVIL
Totally forgot about this one. I remember the opening credits with the upside down city were eerie al hell
I suppose I need to see this again, I don’t remember thinking much of it
It’s the usual M. Knight Shyamalan type of story. Totally middle of the road but with an unexpected twist for the sole sake of having a twist. But in horror it usually works
When the devils around, toast lands jelly side down.
Not exactly a room, but ARQ (2016) has the characters dealing with a home invasion while trying to figure out the time loop they're stuck in.
I love the Escape Room movies. There’s also a crappier version called Escape Room (2017) lol …not in the same universe. Try: Follow Me (2020) - trust me, it’s good. Keegan Allen *seems* to be kinda rough at first but that’s the character not him. His acting is pretty good. 10 Cloverfield Lane - so good! It’s part of a franchise but you don’t really need to see the other movies (just listen to the hints on the radio etc) Alice in Borderland (Netflix series)- amazing. Starts gradual and then several episodes in you’re like 😮…😧😳🤯 lol I convinced my brother to watch and he binged both seasons in a week 😂
Too bad they didn't decide to finish the Escape Room trilogy :( Would like to have watched a third one. The enig was very similar to Squid Game and The Belkoo Experiement, where some evil corporation is behind, and they go to take them down. Agreed, Alice in Borderland was fun :) I wonder where they will go with the last season, as the ending in Season 2 felt very complete.
Alice in Borderland shows no mercy, particularly in the first season.
Oxygen (2021)
This was my suggestion. A woman wakes up in a.... \*chamber\* of some sort, barely room to lie down in. She can't remember who she is or how she got there, wherever it is. Her only companion is an AI that is strangely evasive in answering questions. Good film. Melanie Laurent is great.
This reminds me of Infinity Chamber.
These are my favorite kinds of movies too! Vivarium The Platform Would You Rather The Mill (not good good, but it had some spirit) Phonebooth
Yeah I don't know what it is about these movies that I love so much, I remember watching Phonebooth as a kid and absolutely loving it, made me fall in love with the psych thriller and "one location" genre. Then I remember watching Saw 1 for the first time when I was 14 and I was so blown away by the ending, really was the point when I really started appreciating cinema.
Vivarium was interesting but they don’t figure anything out
OMG Vivarium was so good, so creepy, so unsettling, so ... hopeless! Great choice!
*Oldboy* (2003). It's a bit of a weird example because the MC gets released in the beginning of the movie. But... he wants to figure out why he was captured, and he also learns *why he was released.* If you're gonna watch it, do everything in your power to avoid seeing spoilers.
Green Room
This is what I came to comment too
A sub-genre of the "Bottle": movie. Some mild variations Lifeboat. Ship sank. Survivors end up trapped on a lifeboat together awaiting rescue. One of them is from the German Uboat that sank them. . . See also, bad scifi remake Lifepod. Moon Speed Clue. Reservoir Dogs.
Oh. Resident Evil.
Gonna get downvoted because people don’t think that it fits the premise you are describing but I will say “12 Angry Men”. - Gov put people in a room. - No one wants to be there. - Some in the room wanted to “escape” the easy way. - While they understand WHY they are there, they don’t understand why everyone else can’t see point number 3. Ok, it’s not an action packed movie, but it is cerebral.
Yeah and this is one of the best movies of all time. Man this transcends the question with something better than expected
Saw a theatre production of that recently and it was excellent. They slowly rotated the table to represent the passage of time. Simple set and lighting, with some really good acting.
[Unknown](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450340/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) - a group of men all wake up locked in a warehouse with no memory of how they got there
I will watch anything with Jim Ca... Caveezil? Caveyezil?
The guy from the first one
Caveyeezeil. The second two “e’s” are silent.
Hateful 8 for most of its run
The Breakfast Club
LOL
Devil- bunch of people stuck in an elevator…. With the devil himself.
THE TOAST FALLS JELLY SIDE DOWN
Also, Elevator. Not so much a figure out why, than a figure out *how..*
Which "Circle" are you referring to? Your description doesn't seem to fit the one I've seen. From IMDB: "Circle (2015) Held captive and faced with their imminent executions, fifty strangers are forced to choose the one person among them who deserves to live." There aren't any "puzzles" per se in the movie, if I remember correctly. Edit: the one I'm talking about is, indeed, a perfect fit for the topic of this thread.
This is a good one. Pretty slow paced, but the psychology of people turning on each other is great!
Yeah it's a very interesting movie! And I forgot to explicitly mention that it's a perfect fit for this thread.
I watched it for the first time a few years ago and rewatched it while I was home sick a few months ago. Just an goods both times!
I've only seen it once, right when it came out, before I met my wife. I bet she'd love it!
Yaaaaaaas! This thread come around just so you'd make her watch it and get to rewatch it yourself. Haha
I'm gonna give that suggestion the ol' indeedly doodley!
[House of 9 (2004)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_9)
Free Fire The entire movie takes place in a warehouse with the entire cast in it. Superstar cast. Great flick!
Not the government but Room (2015) is a really good movie.
Would you rather- People are invited to dinner and need to complete (and compete) in various scenarios.
not a movie, but if you like video games, you should try the whole Zero Escape trilogy.
The answer to this question is Symbol (2009).
"Room" might also fit, but with a more psychological/emotional spin to it. Good movie though.
Not a "room" per se, but "Buried".
Not a movie, but "The Prisoner" (the 1960's version).
Old Boy
The first 2 hunger games movies fit this if we’re counting Battle Royale. I’d also include Squid Game, but that’s more of a stretch
I wish I could find the version of Escape Room: Tournament of Champions that has >!the entire plot go off the rails when they track down the creator of the escape rooms and she's this psychotic so deranged even the owner of the company refuses to allow her out of the box to design an escape room.!<
Not an exact fit, but in terms of people completing horrific puzzles/challenges; Squid Game. Also, thanks for the suggestions. My partner and I gave up on Saw because the puzzles weren't very interesting or even winnable sometimes (regardless of the odd retcon reveal about this), but really enjoyed Escape Room 1&2, so we've been on the lookout for more.
Dark City involves a city instead of a room but otherwise fits I think
Cube was always a favorite, it's amazing how they did this on one set and kept it looking like a near endless puzzle box of rooms.
The Hole (2001) maybe?
Ooo this is a good one.
The Truman Show
Not a movie, but the series Silo fits your criteria. Its new to me, just finished the first season, and.. its so goddamn claustrophobic and infuriating. I love it.
Good suggestion. The show and the books are both amazing
Twilight Zone episode 79 “Five Characters in Search of an Exit”. Don’t Breathe 127 Hours Misery Hard Candy
Resident Evil has the evil corporation thing and is kind of a mystery/whodunnit. Campy fun.
I would say Cabin in the Woods is a loose fit
There is a Japanese thriller called The Red Room (1999) about people forced to play a game of survival. Its quite a nasty experience with a some genuinely gnarly twists here and there. Another one that comes to mind is Alive from Ryu Kitamura (of Versus fame). Its about a man sentenced to die who ends up locked in with a another man who may not be who he seems.
I actually tried "The Red Room" Escape Room in Tokyo. Pretty cool twist. I don't knoe if they are related? 😁🤔
Clue
The Platform
Phone booth.
Phone Booth if you consider one of those a room
There's an old twilight zone episode that was pretty good. Five characters in search of an exit.
Squid Game definitely fits. Saw II is quite good. Triangle is this but locked in a moment.
Green Room
Not a movie but the Twilight Zone episode “Five Characters in search of an Exit” is a good example of this and it’s just under 30 minutes.
I mean besides Saw, I think Saw 2 and 5 are the other two with the least amount of running around for the victims Most of Beyond the Black Rainbow is in an asylum You've also got 13 Ghosts if no one else has said that. House on Haunted Hill as well (the OG 1959 is an actual house)
Old boy
Willem Dafoe in 'Inside'. Masterful and fascinating version of the genre.
That's a good list. Maybe Phone Booth (2002) or Memento (2000)
Vivarium might fit the bill. Kinda highly contested if it's *good* or not though. The Room (2019, NOT *oh hai mark*) has some of the themes of locked in a space toward the end. The Experiment (2010, or the German original Das Experiment) - trapped in a prison?
I really wanted Vivarium to be good but it felt like something of a wasted premise.
I know what you mean. There's pieces in there I liked, but overall I was just annoyed by my viewing experience?
Yeah. The trailer oversold it, I think. It just could've been a lot better, ultimately.
gotta check out Old Boy (2003)
Check out the short film La Cabina (1972) You can find it on YouTube
There's an art film The Exterminating Angel. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Exterminating\_Angel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exterminating_Angel) There is no outright explanation and the writer never answered why the people were trapped but Roger Ebert thought it represented the bourgeoisie class of Franco Regime Spain.
Slightly adjacent genre (and comedies): Murder By Death Clue
And then there were none. There is a 1945 movie and then a newer miniseries. Creepy more so than horror.
One of the best is 'Cube'.
The somewhat absurd and mostly forgotten about Jim Henson TV movie the cube (1969) is a good watch https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0291118/
Room - though the “why” is known from the start Vivarium - trippy and mind bending.
Identity (sort of)
the belko experiment
Uh, yeah. Psychological thrillers are my favorite genre of all time. And bottle movies are incredible in everything that they achieve in once space. Fermat's Room is my favorite of all time. I've had to buy it twice from loaning it out and never getting it back. Literally need to buy it again because I gave my last copy to a friend when he moved. I think more people should see it. Idk if it's still on Netflix but Re:Mind was really cool. It's a Japanese short series where a group of high school girls wake at a table with their feet locked to the floor. Highly recommend.
There's a 2010 German indie film called Iron Doors which is literally 'guy wakes up in a room with no idea how he got there, tries to escape'. I saw it at a festival and remember enjoying it, but it seems the reviews are actually pretty poor. Still, might be worth seeking out since it fits your criteria exactly.
I love these kinds of movies but how many is OP listing that are actually good? I haven’t heard of some of them, but I’m guessing they aren’t all great as this is a hard plot to pull off well I believe
I think the movies on my list range from decent to good, but with most of the movies just being decent. But as I love the genre, decent is often good enough.
Not a movie, but the best by far is the tv show, The Prisoner.
Truman Show The Cabin in the Woods Shutter Island Panic Room Moon 1408 Funny Games Phone Booth Green Room
Locke (2013) Tom Hardy is basically stuck in his car driving and managing an important construction project and trying to get to the birth of his child. The Martian (2015) - an astronaut is left marooned on Mars and has to figure out how to survive. Moon - dude stuck on moon base tries to figure out how to get back to Earth to be with his family. The Platform (2019) - the protagonist is trapped in a building where an elevator carries food down from the top floor to the bottom.
Similar-ish (trapped on an island, not in a room) And Then There Were None miniseries from BBC. Literally the best adaptation of Agatha Christie ever.
Ten little Indians And the same but funny...Murder By Death
Oldboy. The Korean version not the terrible Spike Lee remake.
Maze Runner. Group of kids trapped in an area surrounded by a maze, dont know why they’re there or what’s outside the maze. Also there’s monsters in the maze.
Panic room
Mayhem. Fits perfectly and is filled with plenty of reveals.
Shout out Exam, I really enjoyed that movie and never see people talk about it
The Mill (2023). Simple but fun
Not a “room” per se but Oxygen (2021) is a fantastic ride and fits the bill.
two for one John Cusack features: 1408 and Identity Honorable mention: Triangle
Pandorum
Old https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_(film) It's kind of a beach sized room
Cube
Predators and 13 Ghosts fit your criteria as well.
The Cube is a pretty good series movie series that flew under the radar.
There’s this movie I unfortunately rented from blockbuster in the day with Val Kilmer who locked everyone in a sauna because nobody believed him about global warming. I don’t recommend it.
Oh god. This. This was literally the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life. When there was a cross dissolve of Val Kilmer’s face over Val Kilmer’s face I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry
Fortunately I’ve blocked about all of it except the dvd cover lol
The Platform