10 Most Immersive Movies Ever
3. Buried
Buried is one of the most impressive filmmaking feats of the last few decades. Confined to a small box and just a single onscreen actor, director Rodrigo Cortés is somehow able to discover countless inventive ways to stage and shoot each scene, making his movie more kinetic and engrossing than it had any right to be.
He places the camera in the dead-centre of the coffin and pivots it on a 180-degree angle, showing you the entire length of unfortunate protagonist Paul Conroy's wooden prison; he utilises tons of extreme close-ups on his leading man, so you can see the furrows of his brow, the sweat, the dirt, and the pure terror in his eyes; hell, there's even a legitimately tense action scene, wherein Conroy is forced to fend off an attack from a curious (and potentially deadly) snake.
By covering every conceivable inch of the coffin and giving us a good sense of the limited space in which Conroy is able to move, Cortés is able to place us right alongside him and have us share in his anxiety and desperation. You know the exact size and shape of the box, and this helps to plant you in Conroy's shoes, racking your brain to think of some crazy way you might escape such an impossible situation.
In that way, Buried is a surprisingly active viewing experience. Tight spaces are such a basic and primal fear that you're empathising with Conroy from the very first shot, and it's hard not to feel uncomfortable as he screams in terror, claws his surroundings, and wastes his precious air. It's a life-or-death puzzle that you'll try your hardest to solve, because there are few things more gripping than the feeling that death is imminent.