10 Most Claustrophobic Movies Of All Time

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Nowadays, when we think zombie apocalypse we think of blood, guts, and ultra-violence, and while Night of the Living Dead does feature all three on occasion, for the most part it relies on the fear of what we cannot see. This was the first of seven Living Dead movies from the self-proclaimed father of zombies George A. Romero, and despite it having a significantly lower budget than the instalments that followed it was by far and away the most effective.

When the dead suddenly pull themselves from the earth and begin a mindless hunt for human brains, Johnny and Barbara Blair are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The siblings, who were making their annual visit to their father's grave, find themselves besieged by flesh-eating zombies and take refuge with a group of survivors in a rural farmhouse, where most of the film takes place.

Much like 12 Angry Men, Night of the Living Dead chooses to examine its characters as much as it does the circumstances that brought on their confinement, and in both cases the disintegration of the group serves to heighten the sense of claustrophobia on screen. Romero admitted that budget restrictions forced his hand when it came to the setting, but the boarded up farmhouse would go on to become a staple of the zombie genre.