No escape: 12 incredibly claustrophobic movies

Claustrophobia generally isn't a good feeling, but it can make for some darn good filmmaking.

The upcoming film Room will make extensive use of that "can't escape, can't breathe" feeling that you get when you're stuck in -- well, a room for too long. In Brie Larson's case, her character Joy is stuck in a single room with her son Jack for seven straight years.

Room isn't the first movie to take place in a single space, or to even give the viewer that throat-clenching feeling of no escape. Here are several other claustrophobia-inducing movies that will still ensnare your attention.

Panic Room

Stuck in: A panic room.

Home invasion movies can be the same-old brand of terrifying, but gripping performances by Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart and tight direction by David Fincher makes Panic Room a movie you wouldn't mind being stuck with for two hours.

Buried

Stuck in: A coffin. Buried underground.

Get ready for lots of heavy breathing courtesy of Ryan Reynolds. An American truck driver working in Iraq finds himself buried alive in a wooden coffin with only a lighter and a BlackBerry phone. Shot completely from the POV of Reynolds' character, the movie is completely unsettling to watch.

The Descent

Stuck in: An underground cave system.

A movie that passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors, The Descent is a 2005 British horror film about six woman who get lost in an unmapped cave system, then hunted by creepy, primordial flesh-eating beings.

Rope

Stuck in: Their sense of impending GUILT. Also an apartment.

An Alfred Hitchcock classic, Rope takes place in real time and is one of the oldest movies to shoot in one long take (with the help of some clever editing, of course). The film is about two young men who murder a former classmate in cold blood and host a dinner party over his dead body hidden in a trunk, just to prove that they can get away with the "perfect murder." James Stewart stars as the former teacher who inspired them.

Devil

Stuck in: An elevator.

An M. Night Shyamalan movie about a stalled elevator and its five occupants -- one of whom may be the Devil himself. Lots of creepy crawly things happen in the closed metal box, as well as a growing body count.

Gravity

Stuck in: Space.

Oddly for a movie that's about an astronaut who gets stranded in space, it's extremely claustrophobic. Maybe because outside of Sandra Bullock's panicked breathing, she's surrounded by deafening silence -- and she talks to no one else except for a soon-departed George Clooney.

Phone Booth

Stuck in: A phone booth.

Colin Farrell spends the majority of the movie stuck in a phone booth with a sniper rifle trained on him, and the police and general public believing him to be the shooter. The movie takes place in real time, and also stars Kiefer Sutherland as the sniper -- bringing along with him that 24-esque split screen that the early 2000s were obsessed with.

Alien

Stuck in: A really narrow spaceship.

Before Ripley was the female sci-fi hero of the century, she was just another potential victim in a space-horror movie, with a face-hugging alien stalking the crew and picking them off one by one. Their ship was strangely badly lit and grungy for a commercial spacecraft, but it added to the terrifying claustrophobia of Alien.

Repulsion

Stuck in: An apartment.

A disturbing Roman Polanski movie starring Catherine Deneuve as a woman who's disgusted by men, the entire movie takes place in her slowly deteriorating apartment as she locks herself away and starts to hallucinate visions of an implied sexual assault. It's a sinister movie that will make you never want to eat rabbit again.

Lifeboat

Stuck in: A lifeboat.

Hitchcock is at it again, bringing his mastery of suspense to the sea in Lifeboat. Set in World War II, a group of international survivors are stuck at sea after their ships sink in combat, but they soon clash over rations, personalities and the Germans on board.

127 Hours

Stuck in: A boulder crushing his arm.

Sure, it's set in the great outdoors, but James Franco's Aron Ralston spends much of his time trapped beneath a boulder that has pinned his arm against a rock wall. The claustrophobia sets in when you realize that you're never going to cut away from Aron's struggle to survive, and ultimately, cut of his arm to escape. It's gruesome, but you can't look away. Ok, maybe at that one part you can.

The Hole

Stuck in: An abandoned nuclear fallout shelter.

A low-budget 2001 British horror film about four private school teens who get stuck in an underground shelter after several nights of hard partying. The presence of Keira Knightley, Thora Birch and its unreliable narrator elevate this B-horror movie from its premise and awful trailer.

Room is playing in theaters in limited release Oct. 16.