Top 10 Bottle Movies

A bottle movie is a movie that takes place in mostly one location. It creates a feeling of claustrophobia and unease, which makes the movie all the more fascinating.  Often they are the films that are based off plays. There have been many movies that can be considered bottle movies. Here are a few that are my personal favorites:

10. Devil – The M. Night Shyamalan film where five strangers are trapped in an elevator and one of them is the Devil. There are moments that are cheesy but it is still written like a creepy episode of The Twilight Zone. The really eerie parts are that you have no idea what will happen to these people when the elevator lights begin to flicker.

9. Frozen – Not the Disney cartoon but rather the 2010 film of the same name. Three friends go to a ski resort and soon find themselves stranded on a ski lift. Stuck with the prospects of freezing to death or the facing the possibilities of the dangers of falling below, each much make a crucial choice.  The cold isolation makes this movie worth while as well as the fun dialogue between the three friends.

8. Buried – An American civilian working as a truck driver in Iraq is kidnapped and buried alive. The entire movie is shot within the coffin where the driver, played by Ryan Reynolds, calls his friends and family in an attempt to save himself. It is an impressive movie and is possibly one of Ryan Reynolds’ best acting to date. The suspense is very real as you hope his character can find safety.

7. Open Water – This is a little different for a bottle movie. Instead of being trapped somewhere confining they are trapped in a wide-open space where there is literally nowhere else for them to go. Based off the chilling true story, a couple is left behind by their scuba group and are stranded in the open ocean. If you ever feared the ocean before, this movie will make things all the more scary.

6. Identity – Much like the Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None, Identity is a whodunit set, for the most part, in a cheap Nevada motel. The cast is a lot of fun and the psychological thriller aspects of it all make this movie incredibly entertaining. It is a smart movie that I don’t want to give away too much of here.

5. Cube – Several people find themselves trapped inside a rotating cube laden with traps. Their personalities clash but each of them is trying their hardest to escape this mysterious capture. It is a strange Canadian film, which is well-acted and fascinating to watch. It also has a bit of The Twilight Zone feel at times.

4. 12 Angry Men – 12 Angry Men tells the story of 12 jurors who argue and discuss a case as one juror goes about establishing reasonable doubt in all the others’ minds. It all takes place in the jury room and after enough time you begin to feel to the same frustration in some of these people. It’s a provocative movie that is still relevant today.

3. Das Boot – A great movie from the point of view of a Nazi U-boat and its crew. The claustrophobic feeling is taken to a new degree as the U-boat must silently avoid depth charges, torpedo ships, and get back to their base safely.  It is a deep movie that covers the horrors of war from a side we don’t always look at, the Germans.

2. Bug – A psychological thriller about two lovers who share a mutual insanity the longer they are together. Taking the backdrop of a crappy motel, it gets more and more claustrophic as they loose themselves to their madness and start covering everything in foil in hopes of thwarting the “bugs” in their skins. The acting is amazing and the mood is chilling and worth seeing.

1. Moon – Moon is the story of a lone man on the Moon harvesting resources with his friendly robot. The moon base and a bit of the moon is all we experience in terms for a set. Still, Sam Rockwell gives an amazing performance as Sam, the man just trying to do his job until he can get home. It’s a fantastic movie that has an amazing twist. If you have a chance you really need to give this a watch.