Some settings or physical locations play such a strong role in a film that they can be considered a character in their own right. There are a lot of ways to develop this into an article — you could focus on a genre (John Ford's westerns come to mind), or do it as a top ten best, or look at a particular director's use of settings (Stephen King movies tend to take place in cramped, trapped, isolated settings which add to the horror and unraveling of the MC's sanity). Lots of opportunities for striking or visually interesting images in the article as well.
Great idea. Perhaps a list of films that use setting as character that exemplify contrasting use of setting. You listed John Ford westerns and Stephen King movies. One idea might be to stick with a genre and compare and contrast: Westerns, or Horror, or SciFi etc. Another idea might be to pick ten very different films to compare and contrast: 300, Life of Pi, The Grey, etc – RJWolfe10 years ago
You should definitely include Alfred Hitchcock into this. Psycho is an excellent example. Also worth considering are his less known works Rope and Lifeboat. – orenhammerquist10 years ago
American Horror Story does this really well especially in the first season with the murder house, it would definitely be worth a mention. – Tyler McPherson10 years ago