REFERENCE: Confinement in Film

Confinement, enclosure and claustrophobia are all extremely common forms of fear and paranoia that most people can unanimously relate to in some way. The use of confined spaces in film is possibly the most frequently utilised method of creating fear, tension and anxiety. It is because many of us can relate to this predicament that they have such an effect on us, it starts very early on in childhood. Our exploration of spaces and the world only leads to more, we are unsure where these spaces and pathways take us. At the basis of all these emotions is our sense of curiosity and fear of the unknown and surprise. These all work together to emphasise the most basic of spatial phobias.

Alice in Wonderland (1999) directed by Nick Willing

Alice in Wonderland directed by Jan Svankmajor

Kill Bill Volume. 2 (2004) directed by Quentin Tarantino

REFERENCE: If I Can't See You, Can You Still See Me?

I am fascinated by film and books that explore into the worlds of those that may inhabit alternate realities to our own. People who have been isolated from society, blinded, mute, on a voiceless island in the midst of our world. It's a world that cannot be entered or understood by anyone other than someone who has been there. In that way, we could never imagine or possibly experience what and how they perceive the world. How it differs from our own. They are trapped in their own world, one that no one else can relate to. It's a lonely place.

Dogtooth (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Dogtooth (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Dogtooth (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Dogtooth is a film that explores the concept of isolation to its extreme. How people may behave and perceive their world completely differently when they are cut off from the rest of society. The film's insights are startling and haunting, a dystopian fear of a potential existence that seems terrifyingly otherworldly.

Blindness (2008) directed by Fernando Meirelles

"The only thing more terrifying than blindness is being the only one who can see."

Dystopian drama has often been a subject of exploration, a window into a darker reality we hope to avoid. Our fear is in fact due to its very likeliness to become a possibility in our lives. The best kind of dystopias are the ones that don't seem too far fetched or removed, the ones that everyone may and can fear. The fact we can comprehend vaguely how it would be to live in such a space, the psychological impact is far greater. If the world around us changes, so do we.

The Diving Bell and Butterfly (2007) directed by Julian Schnabel