Claustrophobic

David Gewirtz/ZDNETIf you've been paying any attention at all to ZDNET for the past half year or so, you know that one of the trends we find most intriguing is XR, the acronym used because AR/VR/MR (for augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality) is just too cumbersome. Like generative AI, XR in 2023 has become usable and potentially practical to an audience wider than enthusiasts, early adopters, and researchers. Also: Would you believe a VR headset outsold AirPods during Black Friday? In fact, just last…

This crushingly intimate drama occupies a space barely larger than a bedroom in the rundown council house where much of the story unfolds. Even on its few ventures outside, the location filming is delivered in tight closeups, the environment beyond the figures little more than colourful smeary blurs of light. You would hardly know it was shot in Glasgow.The people at the centre of the story are young mother Grace (French actor Déborah Lukumuena, from Divines) and her pubescent daughter Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu), Congolese…

Like her partner Kantemir Balagov’s 2019 film Beanpole, there’s an uncanny claustrophobic charge to Kira Kovalenko’s family drama, though it finally exhales an equally powerful sigh of self-redemption. Milana Aguzarova stars as Ada, a young woman in a North Ossetian mining town trapped by her ailing and possessive father Zaur (Alik Karaev). He guards the only front door key, letting her and her siblings out when he chooses, and refuses to let her have an operation to correct injuries sustained during a school…

Image: Pathé One of the 2000s’ best horror films has found a new home for streaming, as the spooky month gains another juggernaut entry to re-experience. British horror film The Descent stunned many in 2005 when it released, with the low-budget film grossing $57 million out of nowhere. The Neil Marshall directed hit film will now see a change of streaming homes, with Amazon Prime Video playing host to the claustrophobia thriller. The Descent follows a group of six women on a spelunking adventure deep in the…

via Lifetime One unifying fear that a huge number of people has comes from the thought of being trapped in a confined space. Apparently, not a lot of them subscribe to Paramount Plus, looking at how 2016’s nail-biting Girl in the Box is faring on the streaming service. As per FlixPatrol, the horrific tale that a lot of people wouldn’t even contemplate watching based on their primal fears has become the 15th most-watched title on the platform’s global rankings, and it’s even risen as high as fourth position in…

via Trimark Pictures Thanks to the various international expansions in place for Disney Plus customers, we’ve seen an abundance of titles make a huge splash on the platform that definitely don’t fit the Mouse House’s family-friendly remit. These efforts range from foul-mouthed comedies to hard-boiled thrillers via bloody, brutal, R-rated horror, with cult classic Cube falling firmly in the latter camp. Vincenzo Natali’s debut feature was a word-of-mouth sensation when it first landed in 1997, earning $9 million…