A lot of people in the screenwriting world have been talking about contained thrillers lately. For the most part, I don’t hear ‘contained thriller’ defined. I subscribe to Jon Molly’s definition, “A contained thriller is a movie that takes place on a single set (or a very limited number of them).” Recent movies in this genre include 127 Hours, Buried, and Paranormal Activity.
But what’s so great about contained thrillers?
1. They’re cheap.
Fewer sets means it’s cheaper to make a movie. This is not only due to the expense of building the sets, but also the expense of changing sets and re-establishing the shoot.
2. They rely on concept, not star power.
This doesn’t mean they don’t often get stars attached. But it doesn’t take a star to get Paranormal Activity made. The audience shows up for the concept. This makes the movie cheaper, but more importantly, it opens the door to new writers.
3. They’re fun.
The audience is excited to see what the filmmakers will do with the idea. If the story has a group of characters, they’re often forced to interact. The hot girl has to talk to the computer nerd because there’s a built-in justification. Additionally, the restriction on setting helps ease other storytelling plausibility: We discover the computer nerd was a double agent for the CIA all along and we buy it.
At the very least, I think writing a contained thriller is a great exercise. It can help keep you from using “easy outs,” like going to the press or deus ex machina. It demands that you think about your characters’ identities as drivers of the story’s action. For example, in Cube, a motley group of people wake up stuck in a series of interlocking cubes. The movie asks, “How would each of these people act?”
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