Editorials
6 Claustrophobic Horror Movies to Watch After ‘Iron Lung’
When it comes to horror stories, a good setting is just as important as a good villain. After all, no one would be scared of Michael Myers if he decided to attack a well-policed metropolis where you’re never really alone, and no self-respecting poltergeist would ever choose to haunt a one-room apartment.
However, some settings are so creepy that they end up becoming the main source of scares – outshining even the monsters lurking in the dark.
I believe this is exactly the case with Markiplier’s big-screen adaptation of the hit 2022 video game Iron Lung, with this long-awaited indie horror flick telling the story of a convict (played by Mark himself) who’s forced to explore a literal ocean of blood from inside the confines of a coffin-like submarine. In honor of this single-location horror thriller making a killing at the box office, here’s a list recommending six other claustrophobic horror films to watch after Iron Lung!
While not all of these movies are quite as cramped as Iron Lung, they all share the idea of the location itself being a big part of the story. That being said, this isn’t a definitive list of all the best claustrophobic thrillers and horror movies out there, so don’t forget to comment below with your own favorites if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list:
6. Devil (2010)
Originally meant to be the first entry in a three-part horror anthology produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Devil is a claustrophobic homage to Agatha Christie novels infused with a religious horror twist. You see, instead of imprisoning our suspects inside a stylish manor or even an isolated train, John Erick Dowdle’s film follows an ensemble of unlucky Philadelphians who become trapped inside an elevator with Satan himself.
Dowdle’s minimalist experiment suffers from over-the-top acting and a couple of contrived plot points, but it’s still an insanely fun throwback that wouldn’t have felt out of place as a feature-length episode of The Outer Limits. In fact, I still think it’s a shame that we never got to see the rest of Shyamalan’s proposed Night Chronicles trilogy – especially if they were all going to be as silly and unhinged as Devil.
5. Buried (2010)
I had the pleasure of watching Buried in theaters back when it was first released, and while this Hitchcockian thriller wasn’t marketed as a horror film, I actually saw several groups of people leave the theater because they simply couldn’t handle the terrifying tension of watching Ryan Reynolds slowly suffocate to death inside a wooden casket.
Looking back on it now, I actually think the flick is a miracle in pacing, as it consistently keeps the audience engaged despite the severely limited camera angles and single-character presentation. Of course, the ending is just as divisive now as it was back in 2010, so let us know in the comments how you reacted to that shocking finale!
4. The Descent (2005)
While I could be convinced to climb a mountain or maybe even jump out of an airplane with the proper equipment and financial incentive, caving is the one activity that I can’t imagine ever participating in. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand the thrill of entering a secluded space that no human being has ever set foot in before, but the mere thought of having to squeeze through narrow passages where the sun has literally never shone is enough to send chills down my spine.
And if there’s one movie that has ever accurately captured this unique form of claustrophobic despair, it’s Neil Marshall’s infamous creature feature, The Descent. A film so anxiety-inducing that it didn’t even need the cave-dwelling monsters to be scary, there’s a reason why this is still considered the pinnacle of claustrophobic filmmaking.
3. Penny Dreadful (2006)
Not to be confused with John Logan’s excellent TV series of the same name, Richard Brandes’ Penny Dreadful is a microbudget horror film about a car-phobic girl who finds herself trapped inside a vehicle after being attacked by a sadistic hitchhiker. What follows is one of the most underrated genre experiences of the 2000s, with this underrated gem actually being part of the first edition of the fan-favorite After Dark Horrorfest.
While it’s pretty obvious that the single location and overall minimalism are the result of Brandes trying to keep the budget under control, there’s no denying that this mean-spirited little thriller is punching way above its weight.
2. 1408 (2009)
From The Eagles’ Hotel California to the internet’s collective Backrooms mythos, the horror genre appears to have a love affair with stories about transitory/liminal spaces turning on people and trapping them in supernatural cycles of eternal suffering. In the world of film, the best example of this has to be Mikael Håfström’s fan-favorite Stephen King adaptation, 1408.
While this beloved thriller recycles and repurposes familiar concepts from King’s previous stories (with many of its ideas having been specifically borrowed from The Shining), 1408 still manages to get under viewers’ skin by playing with expectations and toying with our protagonist’s mind – to the point that the evil room’s presence remains even after John Cusack’s character manages to leave.
1. Below (2002)
There’s no talking about claustrophobic horror without bringing up the other great horror movie set inside of submarine, David Twohy’s criminally underrated Below. A WWII ghost story that takes place entirely within a navy submarine, this deep-sea thriller is another case of a piece of speculative fiction that didn’t even need supernatural elements to be scary. After all, being trapped inside a pressurized hunk of metal during wartime is terrifying enough without adding undead influences into the mix.
That being said, I actually like the idea that not even the unseen world of the paranormal is immune to the horrors of war, and that’s why I couldn’t help but include this film on the list.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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