Buried (2010)
In the realm of unpleasant, non-horror viewing experiences, Buried has got to be close to the top of the list. Depicting the excruciatingly claustrophobic, fictional fate of an American civilian truck driver who has been working in Iraq, the film is directed by Rodrigo Cortes from a script by Chris Sparling, and takes place entirely within the confines of the coffin this kidnap victim is trapped inside.
Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up to find himself bound, gagged and buried alive. He has a lighter and a mobile phone at his disposal, and spends the next 90 minutes trying to facilitate his own rescue. He figures out that his convoy was attacked, and he was knocked unconscious after being hit on the head by a rock. His kidnapper, Jabir, calls and demands that Conroy pay them $5 million by 9pm, or he will be left to die, buried in the desert.
While in the coffin, Paul manages to contact the U.S State Department, and subsequently the head of the U.S Hostage Working Group, Dan Brenner. This official manages to reassure Paul that two other U.S. citizens have found themselves in the same situation in recent weeks, and both were successfully rescued – including a 26 year old man named Mark White. The tension mounts as the kidnapper demands mobile phone videos from Paul, and footage arrives on the device showing the execution of one of his colleagues.
Paul begins to hear the sound of distant explosions and, as the noise grows closer, the ground vibrations damage his coffin, allowing sand to begin seeping in. His race against time becomes more desperate and Paul can hear Brenner and his team on the phone as they excitedly announce that they have found his burial site.
The conclusion of that scene, however, represents one of the most devastating, heartbreaking twists in modern cinema.
