10 Horror Movies Set In Only One Location
1. Hush
Before I Wake director/ everyone’s new favourite horror helmer Mike Flanagan is no slouch when it comes to the single location scare fest. After all, the man directed not only Gerald’s Game, which sees Carla Gugino confined to a bed in a remote cabin for almost its entire runtime, but he’s also responsible for the acclaimed Oculus, an earlier 2013 effort set almost entirely in a family home as it bounced between generations.
However, this tight, terrifying 2017 sort-of-slasher remains Flanagan’s masterclass in pared-down scares, and the film makes extraordinarily clever use of its single location. Eschewing the more gory shocks of Eden Lake or the deconstructive smugness of Haneke’s overrated Funny Games, Hush follows a deaf protagonist who is being stalked in her remote home.
And that’s it.
No flashback padding, no string of extra victims to fill out the runtime (is it really a slasher if two people die?), nothing but the raw terror of watching our hero alternately escape and find refuge in one remote house as this unrelenting force of evil tracks her movements, taunts her, and seems to appear everywhere. Sure, this flick gets into some psychological explorations of its heroine’s trauma and her resilience, but it’s mostly a tense thriller made all the more effective by its limited location.