In Tight Places

I don't know at what age I realized it -- nor what spurred or caused it -- but I suffer from the irrational fear of tight spaces. Claustrophobia. That is such a marvelous and terrible (19th century) word. It's made up from the Latin claustrum "a shut in place" and the Greek φόβος, phóbos, "fear". Wikipedia says one study estimates that "from 5–7% of the world population is affected by severe claustrophobia". I'm bad enough, but I hope I don't think I qualify as 'severe'. Ever wonder if you're claustrophobic? There are a couple of easy ways to find out. You'll know it rather quickly if you ever have to go through a MRI of your head, or have to lie flat (with your arms over your head) under a Gamma-ray Camera (by way of experiencing a Thallium Stress Test). Believe me on this... I've experienced both. And, if there's one nightmare that will wake me up alert & sober every single time (and cause me to get out of bed to walk around the house in the middle of the night), it is dreaming of a cramped, confined place... with me in it. So what brought this dread to the surface? The springboard that caused me to write about my fear in a post was a piece by Paige MacGregor, over at B-Sol's very entertaining The Vault of Horror blog. It was an elegant and illustrative post about a new thriller coming out late this summer, called Buried (starring the future Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds). The site is not fully up yet, but their Coming Soon image (along with the haunting background music that greets you) certainly got my attention, and recall, going. Check out Ms. MacGregor's post below:

A Peek at the New "Buried" Poster: Simple, Yet Terrifying...



When I read it, it instantly got my memory registering the sequences/situations I've come across over the years (in film and books, that is) which got to me. All of the works I list, in distinct ways, managed to illicit the same queasy sensation (and the accompanying rise in anxiety) when I came upon those kinds of moments in each. My examples are below (and some spoilers are ahead... so you've been warned):

• Buried Alive - this is director Frank Darabont's 1990 movie for cable that had a husband in desperate (and tight) straits when his wife (and her lover) decide to avoid divorce court and attorney fees. The situation he goes through, and even the reversal that comes from the subsequent revenge, had me uncomfortable for days after the initial viewing.
  
• Alien - being trapped inside a dark vessel, flying through the coldness of space, with a creature that is labeled "A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality" (and has acid for blood) was bad enough, but then Capt. Dallas has to crawl through the ship's ventilator shafts to root it out? Hudson said it best in the sequel: "Oh yeah, sure! With those things runnin' around? You can count me out."
  
• The Serpent and the Rainbow - that tagline of "Don't bury... I'm not dead!" was never better used than in this 1988 film by Wes Craven. As one IMDB reviewer put it, "nothing can compare, or condition you, to the horror of being unknowingly buried alive and not being able to scream in order to prevent that terrifying act from happening".
• The Vanishing (aka Spoorloos) - we're talking about the 1988 Dutch original by George Sluizer (not the very lame American remake--what's puzzlingly is that it was also directed by the same guy), I won't give this one away. But, by the time you reach the end, I guarantee you'll agree with me that it belongs on this list!
• Body Double - when director Brian De Palma identifies the 1984 film's protagonist (Jake Scully) as a known claustrophobic, you have to realize he's going to bring some real nasty situation into play by story's end, now don't you? He doesn't disappoint (as you desperately reach for the paper bag to breathe into).
  
• Dante's Peak - you know it was already thrilling enough in this disaster film (thanks J.D. for the movie recommendation) before our plucky survivors drove into a mine shaft to escape the volcano's overblast; but then, in an effort to recover the life-saving NASA transmitter, our hero just has to crawl back into the vehicle as its being crushed and compacted by the shifting ground around it (caused by a cave-in, of course).
  
• Die Hard - John McClane barely crawling through that ventilation duct with only a cigarette lighter... shudder.
  
• Kill Bill Vol. 2 - this will be the last entry on my list involving a coffin and that particularly unpleasant way to die (that a villain can put a hero through in a film). What makes this so well done (i.e., absolutely terrifying), is Quentin Tarantino's use of sound in this sequence. From The Bride's (and the audience) perspective, listening to the nails being pounded in, the coffin being dragged down into place, and the shovelfuls of earth being thrown on top of us (amidst our panicked breathing), we get to hear the last sounds of the living slowly fade away...
  
• Poseidon - okay, I'll stipulate that the 2006 remake came nowhere near the 1972 disaster classic in story and thrills. However, I'd argue the original did not put me into anywhere near the state of anxiety that Wolfgang Petersen did with what he did to those survivors in that tight vertical shaft sequence as they killed time trying to open the sealed vent... all the while as shaft fills with water.
  
• The Descent - what Spielberg did for those going into the water with Jaws, director Neil Marshall does to these intrepid women spelunkers in this 2005 movie (see monster fodder). Granted, no matter what the characters find down there in that desolate cave, the scene where one of the characters manages to get wedged in a decidedly narrow crevice had me more than a little uncomfortable (and yelling at the people on the screen for going down there in the first place).
  
• Out of Sight - if I have to be closed into an automobile's trunk (been there, done that), this will be the only instance it could be somewhat tolerable -- with Jennifer Lopez portraying Karen Sisco and me as Jack Foley in Steven Soderbergh's wonderful 1998 film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel of the same title. I think this is the only time I almost forgot the characters were in a locked car trunk (I said, almost).
  
• The Cobra Event (book) - author Richard Preston made me edgy enough describing what it'd be like to catch a bio-hazard level 4 viral pathogen. Then, he made it worst by detailing where you (the dying patient) would live out your remaining life, in a biosafety container like this. To top it off, his protagonist near the climax of the story, manages to get stuck underground... upside down. No thank you.
  
• Die Trying (book) - as formidable a character as Jack Reacher is, author Lee Child still succeeded in bringing him (and me) to a panicked state, in a very realistic manner, during one singular section in his second novel of the series. The imposing Reacher gets stuck in an dark, tight mountain passage. Child wrote the sequence so well, all I could think of was wanting it over with!
  

Are there any films or books out there that have driven you to the edge of panic? Now, I'm going for a walk... outside of here.

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