The setting of a movie is integral to the plot and the characterization of the characters. That’s true for every genre. The setting for a movie is not randomly chosen, it is carefully chosen based on the story the filmmakers want to tell. Just as everything seen in a shot is supposed to be shown that way, the setting has a purpose too.
Forhorrormovies in particular, the setting is especially important because it is most likely where the majority of the action is going to come from. If the movie is about a haunted hotel, houses built on ancient burial grounds, or whatever the plot might be about, the setting is a key factor in the storytelling process.
There is a plethora of settings to choose from in the horror genre because horror can take place in essentially any location. There arehorror movies that take place in broad daylight, horror movies that take place in one unlucky town, and even horror movies that take place in dreams.
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A setting that is frequently used in horror films but perhaps less talked about is mazes or labyrinths. Given the typically uncomfortable nature of horror films, it’s unsurprising that a number of them utilize tight or confusing spaces in their plot. Navigating a maze would be difficult enough on its own, but these movies make it nearly impossible. Here are ten horror movies with mazes or labyrinths.
10As Above, So Below (2014)
If you know anything about the history of Paris, then you most likely know that there are hundreds of miles of tunnels in the catacombs that lie beneath the city. These catacombs are the eternal home to thousands of souls and numerous displays of human bones.
The found footage horror filmAs Above, So Belowfollows a small group of explorers who venture into the catacombs for the first time in search of what truly lies beneath the city of the dead, they uncover a dark and twisted secret. Theirjourney into the catacombs results in pure terroras they desperately try to escape the horrifying maze of bones and secrets that are better left unknown.
Rent it on Prime Video or Apple TV
9Thirteen Ghosts (2001)
Thirteen Ghosts
Starring Tony Shalhoub and resident scream king Matthew Lillard,Thirteen Ghostsis the 2001 remake of the 1960 movie of the same name. The movie follows Arthur (Shalhoub) and his two children, Bobby (Alec Roberts) and Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth), after they inherit their Uncle Cyrus' (F. Murray Abraham) glass estate, which happens to be a prison to a dozen ghosts. When Arthur and his kids first enter the house, along with his attorney and the kids' nanny, they discover that they are trapped inside the evil estate, so they can open the Eye to Hell.
With the help of ghost hunter Dennis (Lillard) and his ghost activist rival Kalina (Embeth Davidtz), the group must figure out how to navigate the maze of a house and get out alive. However, the glass maze is ever-changing and full of spirits eager to get their hands on the living.
8Vivarium (2019)
Read Our ReviewPart supernatural mystery and part psychological horror,Vivariumrevolves around a young couple, Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) and Gemma (Imogen Poots), looking to buy their starter home. They meet with a rather peculiar real estate agent who takes them to a new housing development to show them a single-family home. After following the strange agent, Tom and Gemma find themselves trapped in a maze of identical houses and forced to raise an otherworldly child, with seemingly no way out of the maze.
The film is more of a horror comedy than a straightup chiller, but the maze is certainly perplexing and as weird as you probably would think it would be.
Stream it on Netflix
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7Cube (1997)
Cubefollows six people with varying personalities from different walks of life who wake up in a giant cube together. This cube has thousands of possible rooms and is seemingly endless. Each of the six captives has a skill or trade that could help them get out of the maze, which becomes clear when they band together to attempt escape. The group consists of a cop, a math genius, an architect, a doctor, an escape artist, and a disabled man. As they attempt to escape, they each begin to figure out why they have been imprisoned in this deadly, booby-trapped cube.
Stream it on Tubi, Pluto TV, or Kanopy
6Grave Encounters (2011)
Grave Encounters
The Vicious Brothers' haunted hospital misadventure,Grave Encounters,follows Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) and the crew of a ghost-hunting reality show who decide to shoot an episode in the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained events have been happening for years. For the sake of creating interesting reality television, the crew voluntarily locks themselves inside the hospital for the night to conduct a paranormal investigation.
Not long into their investigation, they realize that the hospital isn’t just haunted, it’s alive. It has no intention of ever letting them leave, and the group finds themselves lost in a labyrinth of hallways and corridors. This endless maze is filled with the ghosts of former patients who are bent on terrorizing them. As they descend deeper into this nightmarish labyrinth, they begin to question their sanity as they uncover the hospital’s dark past and record what might be their final episode.
Stream it on Tubi or Pluto TV
5The Collection (2012)
The Collection
The sequel to the 2009 film The Collector,The Collectionfollows the same creepy villain who imprisons his victims and sets deadly traps in that location. In the sequel, the survivor from the first movie, Arkin (Josh Stewart), is blackmailed to help a teenage girl escape the clutches of The Collector. The sadistic serial killer is keeping the girl, Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick) trapped in an abandoned hotel that he has transformed into his own personal booby-trapped maze. Arkin has to team up with the mercenaries Elena’s father hired to find her and help them navigate the hellish maze.
Coming from Twisted Pictures, the same studio behind theSawfranchise, the traps in this maze are gruesome.
Stream it on Prime Video or Tubi
4The Night House (2021)
The Night House
A widow begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets.
Read Our Review
Rebecca Hall is an underrated horror actress, and her performance inThe Night Houseshould be telling of her abilities in the genre. This psychological horror follows Beth (Hall) who recently buried her husband after he suddenly took his own life. Grief-stricken and emotionally scarred, Beth returns to the vacant lake house he built for her in the woods of upstate New York. As a heartbroken Beth tries to piece her life back together, eerie shadows and frightening reflections in the windows start to taunt her. Beth finds herself rummaging through her husband’s belongings searching for answers to her vivid nightmares.
While the film doesn’t physically take place in a maze, Beth finds the architectural mock-up of the house her husband built for her, which is designed as a maze that Beth can’t figure out. As she continues to search through her husband’s belongings, she also discovers a book about the Caerdroia Labyrinth, which leaves her with disturbing clues to a place she most definitely does not want to go to.
Rent it on Prime Video
3The Shining (1980)
The Shining
Anyone who knows anything about Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining knows that it takes place at the Overlook Hotel. The film follows aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) as he drags his wife and son to the secluded hotel for the winter to work as a caretaker. The more time the Torrances spend there, the quicker Jack loses his mind and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd) begins to have more psychic visions.
It could be argued that the hotel itself is one gargantuan maze, but the film also famously involves a prominent hedge maze that is shown throughout the movie. Undoubtedly the most famous scene involving the maze is when Jack, at this point completely deranged, chases Danny through the now snow-covered labyrinth.
2Hellraiser (1987)
Hellraiser
The ’80s supernatural filmHellraiseris the body-horror film that gave us theiconic horror villain Pinhead and his cronies, the Cenobites. When Kirsty’s (Ashley Laurence) father Larry (Andrew Robinson) and stepmother Julia (Clare Higgins) move into Larry’s childhood home, Kirsty and her boyfriend take a room nearby. However, Julia discovers that the house is already occupied by her brother-in-law Frank (Sean Chapman), whom she previously had an affair with. Except now, Frank is a skinless creature that has risen from Hell after opening a supernatural puzzle box that summoned the Cenobites - sadistic demons from Hell.
The landscape of Hell in this film is one big, nightmarish maze that is truly difficult to navigate. Each corridor of the maze that is Hell is home to the Cenobites or other freaky demons, and Kirsty must find her way out of it to avoid becoming one of them.
Stream it on Shudder or Prime Video
1The Descent (2005)
The Descent
After a tragic accident that resulted in the death of her husband and child the year prior, a thrill-seeker named Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) heads to the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina with her friends for a cave expedition. The group decides to explore a cave system new to them without knowing that their friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza) chose a system that has never been explored before. Inevitably, the group of friends gets stuck in the maze-like structure of the cave without any clue as to how to get out. What they find in the cave is much more than they bargained for.
This is not an easy watch for anyone who is even the slightest bit claustrophobic. The tight spaces, falling rocks, and almost total darkness are enough to make anyone who is afraid of being confined want to hide. The horrifying things that they find in the labyrinth-like cave are enough to make anyone want to hide.
Stream it on Max
