It rose just 10 stories high, but in 1885, Chicago's Home Insurance Building was the first to be called a skyscraper. Since then, high-rise structures have become commonplace, which may be why they provide such great backdrops for horror movies: just about everyone has felt their heart skip a beat when peering down from the rooftop of a tall building or imagined themselves to be King Kong, fighting off attacking planes while defending a once-in-a-lifetime love.
Filmmakers have often tapped into common high-rise fears to create terrifying scenarios, as the following examples well illustrate.
28 Weeks Later (2007)
The sequel begins in the English countryside, then quickly moves to a safe zone in London, where Don (Robert Carlyle) has secured a position as the manager of an apartment complex. The high-rise building appears to be secure, but some of its inhabitants are prone to dangerous activites that expose everyone to the threat of a horrible death.
Land of the Dead (2005)
Wealthy survivors of the zombie apocalypse have taken refuge in Fiddler's Green, a gated community centered around a high-rise residential building. When the remaining zombies start to exhibit signs of thinking again, that signals a big problem that not even rich people can rise above.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Thinly-disguised Manhattan business tycoon Daniel Clamp -- yes, think "Donald Trump" -- has named a high-rise building after himself, which houses, among many other things, a genetics laboratory, where a mutant strain of far more deadly gremlins decide to fight back years of abuse.
Poltergeist III (1988)
Young Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is sent to live with her aunt and her aunt's husband in a Chicago high-rise building. Unfortunately for Carol Anne, the terrors that plagued her and her family in the first two movies in the series have followed her to Chicago,
Demons 2 (1986)
The high-rise apartment building in Lucio Fulci's sequel appears to be secure, until demons gain entry through a television broadcast. The moral of the story: watch movies in theaters! (Come to think of it, though, the demons in the original movie possessed a movie theater, so maybe no place is safe.)
Shivers, aka They Came From Within (1975)
Released in the U.S. as They Came From Within, this early effort by director David Cronenberg scares up a whole lot of unsettling moments. The action revolves around a new, self-contained community located on an island adjacent to Montreal, Canada. What the well-to-do residents don't know is that a scientist in their midst has been developing a new parasite that is meant to be helpful; his experiments go wrong, however, leading to terror in the high-rise residential tower.
