I agree, in fact it was probably one of the best sci fi films of that year. If I had one complaint it was with the villain twist, other than that it was a great scifi/horror action movie with excellent visuals.
In The Mouth Of Madness- A private detective has been hired by a publisher to track down an eccentric best selling horror writer who has dissapeared with his advance money and the completed manuscript of his latest book. The detective quickly runs into bizarre events that seem to be straight out of the authors books, anymore would spoil it. Good movie if not a classic.
The Jacket- Gulf war veteran seems to be experiencing his life non-sequentially, or is he insane?
Welt Am Draht AKA World On A Wire- 1973 German TV miniseries about a company that has developed a perfect simulation of reality in a computer, some odd happenings start the plot off. It is very slow paced and deliberate but has some interesting camera work, hard to say whether you will enjoy it or not.
The 13th Floor- American adaptation of the same source material as World On A Wire, nothing real special.
Vanilla Sky- After a car accident a man starts to wonder if his life is real anymore, remake of a spanish film Open Your Eyes.
FWIW I hated Mulholland Drive. As far as I’m concerned it’s David Lynch’s Jump-the-Shark moment. It’s like he wrote a 12-year-old boy’s fantasy of what a lesbian relationship is like. It was so unbelievable and so insulting that I didn’t care about the rest of the movie.
I was a huge fan of Twin Peaks. What a letdown.
Another vote for Dark City. That should be #1 on your list.
On the pretentious European black-and-white “art flick” side of things, Last Year In Marienbad is a classic example of “where the hell are they and what the hell is going on?”-type cinema.
ETA: Mulholland Drive is brilliant, by the way. Don’t want to risk giving away spoilers by explaining why I think so, though.
Let me think quick:
Free games: 5 days a stranger and other Trilby games from Internet rockstar ben Croshaw:
http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days/
Movies: Brake - Stephen Dorff wakes up in the trunk of a car. I’ll say this, dumb as the plot twists are at the end, it wasn’t boring or anything.
Buried - Ryan Reynolds wakes up buried in a wooden box. More entertaining than it sounds.
TV: Persons Unknown - TV Show from a couple of years ago. Bunch of people wakes up in a The Prisoner - style town. Not very good, but not terrible either.
Dr Who: The God Complex episode. Horror tale whith the Doctor appearing among a bunch of people in a haunted, inescapable hotel.
I would personally recommend the Spanish short movie “La Cabina”. I mentioned it in a thread some days ago in this here board.
It is only 35 minutes long, and although it is clear in which way the main character entered his predicament, there is absolutely no explanation as to what the hell is going on.
And yet, it is VERY gripping and many people mention what an unforgettable impression this movie made on them when they first watched it.
The movie is (technically) in Spanish without subtitles, but there is almost no dialogue, and what little there is doesn’t prevent you from understanding the movie. It is almost completely silent, with only background music.
I found a URL where you can watch it, without cuts, and legally to boot! It is in the website for the Spanish Television company (the one that actually made this film, back in 1972). The video begins with interviews and comments by the director and main actor of the movie. You can skip them. The movie itself begins around the 9:00 minute mark.
Check it out, Anaamika, and enjoy! Judging by what I read in this thread, I think it may well be up your alley.
Just my 2 eurocent!
EDITED TO ADD: If you can’t make that link work (maybe it is not available outside Spain, or something), you can find the movie itself in YouTube. It is cut in three pieces, though. But it is watchable.
Oh, my, what a lot of new movies! Thank you all, any I can, I am adding to my Netflix queue. I mean, no promises that I’ll watch them next week, since I am only on the one-at-a-time plan, but I will watch them. I’ll try La Cabina. I can understand a smattering of Spanish, so I might be able to get by.
Let’s see - I own all the new Who so there’s no problem there; I certainly have seen the God Complex.
Did not like the Village, pah.
I find it interesting that people are exactly on opposite sides of Mulholland Drive. I may try it some day.
I wouldn’t recommend Eden Log. For one thing, it was too damn dark. I hate when directors put in all these gimmicks and stylistic suckiness; it’s just a way to disguise that their movie is really not very good. It was so dark half the time you could not even see what was going on, and could hardly ever see the character’s faces.
The palette was this muted, ugly sort of coloring, almost but not quite b&w. Just seemed pretentious to me.
And on top of it all, terrible, terrible dubbing. THIS MAKES ME FEEL AWFUL. Ugh.
All that aside the movie itself wasn’t that good either. Thankfully Jim Henson’s The Cube more than made up for it.
If you are willing to watch six seasons worth of episodes and don’t mind the fact the resolution is lacking what about LOST? The characters are in a bizarre stuation they don’t understand, there is no real twist at the end
Very elaborate explanations are offered even by the characters(some believe the island is hell) and as more information is gained some theories wax and some wane.
It is pretty much the ultimate WTF is going on show.
I am NOT watching Lost. Sorry.
ETA: No way am I watching six seasons of anything for almost no payoff in the end! A 2 hour movie is a whole different kettle of fish. I don’t even like watching 6 seasons of shows I like.
American TV goes on way too long and has way too many episodes, IMO.
I liked the first half of Dark City, but once the mystery is explained, I thought it got REAL bad, real fast. Like Highlander 2 bad. But I acknowledge that’s a very minority opinion and most people like it. I always thought Proyas (the director) had some real potential but he’s never lived up to it.
Fair enough, 
wasn’t sure if you just liked the situation and didn’t care about the resolution or not.
I’m on this side of the aisle. It helps that I’ve seen it several times in the theater, and also I read this detailed article after the first time I saw it. It explains most everything (that can be explained) and so on every viewing after that I pretty much knew what was going on. Even without the explanation, it’s worth watching to see a then-unknown Naomi Watts blow everybody away (acting-wise, as 2 very different characters), to stare at the beauty of Laura Harring, to get a load of all the other interesting characters and most of all (for me), the Spanish “Crying” by Rebekah del Rio (which works on its own, but is very powerful within the context of the film).
A big 2nd on Sr Siete’s suggestion of Buried being a good movie worth watching. The character knows who and where he is though. You’ll never look at the normally goofy Ryan Reynolds the same way.
I love Existenz and Nemesis Game, but neither is well-connected to what you asked for in the OP; no inescapable rooms, and therefore no one confused about how they got trapped in said room. You might as well throw The Nines and Triangle on your list if you want to stretch the criteria that thin.
Anyway, I’m surprised you’ve never seen Dark City, which is awesome (but still not a locked room setup). In a similar, but not as good vein, there’s The Thirteenth Floor, you can watch it on Crackle for free. Oh, and **Soul Survivors **and Danika are both OMG WTF sorts of movies too.
Dark City is one of my all-time favorite sf movies. Atmospheric, stylish and gripping.
Be sure to listen to the commentary for Dark City. Excellent.
It was the first DVD I owned. Bought it before a redeye flight from Seattle (watched it on my days-old first Powerbook!). About 2 am (looking down on the northern lights), finished the movie, let out a big sigh, then started the commentary.
It was Roger Ebert, detailing why the director did what he did, pointing out homages to little-known films, and explaining film noir (seriously!). I muttered out loud “Holy crap… it’s like film school on a disk.”
In my view, the film explains itself perfectly well. But I know this is not a universally shared opinion. Nevertheless, I didn’t come away with a “what the heck did I just see?” but instead with a “I know now what I just saw but how did this or that detail fit in?” More like a satisfying mystery that rewards a second watch-through, than a completely baffling art film or anything like that.
Maybe a little in between those experiences, since the whole thing is kind of dream-like so there’s no guarantee every little detail has a straightforward explanation. But the broad strokes are definitely there.
I mean, granted, it’s a pretty big room, but I’d say it counts as a “locked room setup.”
I think Paycheck fits the OP’s definition, and I actually rather liked it.
Premise: our protagonist is a very good engineer, who makes a career out of reverse-engineering the work of one company for another, then undergoing a procedure to erase his memory so that none of his knowledge can be used to implicate the company he works for. Makes a hefty paycheck doing it, too. For his most recent assignment, he gives up some two years of his memory, and awakens to find that he has donated his entire multimillion dollar salary to charity. All he has left is an envelope which he mailed to himself, containing twenty ordinary-seeming items, like a pack of cigarettes, a bus pass, an Eisenhower dollar, a paperclip, and a fortune from a fortune cookie. Why those items, and why would he give away all his money? Saying more would give away the mystery…
THANK YOU!
My class was talking about favorite SciFi short stories, we got on P.K. Dick, and I brought this one up, but couldn’t remember the name. The resident Hermione Granger said “Envelope? Ordinary objects? They made a movie of that!” I said “Whaaaa…?!?” But we still couldn’t think of the name.
And now I know!
And, btw, Dark City is SO locked room that when I first saw it I wondered how people could go to Shell Beach… I remember thinking there wouldn’t be room for it.
Well then, let’s count Outside Providence since the characters can’t escape Rhode Island then. 