8 Great Movies That Are Set (Almost) Entirely In A Single Room

7) Buried

Replace ‘room’ with ‘box’ and you get Buried, a draining, claustrophobic single location experience that proves – once and for all – that maybe Ryan Reynolds can act, providing you put him center stage and give him something to chew on. Here, he’s chewing on questions of life and death as Paul Conroy, a truck driver placed in a coffin and buried somewhere in the Iraqi desert.

Over 95 minutes, Paul must use the cell phone and lighter buried with him in an effort to try and either find help or help himself before the oxygen runs out. Cue calamity involving fire and a rogue snake slithering into Paul’s new home, and you have one of the more nerve-wracking movies of the decade.

You may think you know how this thing’s going to end, but that would be optimistically counting on the good nature of director Rodrigo Cortes, who’s totally happy to put you through the wringer for a good hour-and-a-half.