@mariojacobs​ 

The Sentinel

• 1977

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076683/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_the%20sentinel

The plot focuses on Alison Parker, a young model who moves into a historic Brooklyn brownstone that has been sectioned into apartments, only to find that the building is owned by the Catholic diocese and is a gateway to Hell. 

@mariojacobs​ Thanks for this suggestion. I added liminal spaces to its keyword and also to the list.

@mariojacobs​ I'll take your word on The Sentinel as Bing's chatbot seems to interpret the film's Fandom page to indicate it does heavily feature liminal spaces as a theme/narrative structure.

@Tsarstepan​ 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3252636/

The Stanley Parable

An omnipotent narrator tries to tell a story about Stanley, a silent office worker who one day discovers that everyone but him has disappeared from the office building. If Stanley tries to disobey the narrator, interesting things happen.

Mike Ferris finds himself alone in the small Oakwood town and without recollection about his name, where he is or who he is. Mike wanders through the town trying to find a living soul.

Where Is Everybody?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734692/?ref_=ttep_ep_1

The Twilight Zone pilot episode!

I read yesterday that Twilight Zone had featured liminal spaces but didn't mention which episode.

@mariojacobs​ I should have known this one but a failure of memory and if you recognize a pattern - it's a sign of failure in IMDb's keyword system: many of these projects don't have the liminal spaces keyword.

The Stanley Parable has been added to the list.

@Tsarstepan​ 

The Death Watch

Admiral Nelson wanders the Seaview and finds it abandoned except for Captain Crain and Chief Sharkey. He has no memory of what happened before or what the strange sounds over the intercom mean. Capt. Crane is also trying to kill him.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0742307/

The Mark of Gideon

Kirk beams down to the planet Gideon and appears to find himself trapped on a deserted Enterprise. Spock on the real Enterprise must use his diplomatic skills to deal with the uncooperative inhabitants of Gideon and find the Captain.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708470/

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is a 2015 adventure video game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4.[2] The game takes place in a small English village whose inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3132870/?ref_=fn_t_1

BioShock

In 1960, a lone survivor of a plane crash named Jack discovers an abandoned underwater utopia, only to find out that the mystery behind its creation is much more sinister than he first believed.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1094581/?ref_=fn_t_2

All added.

@Tsarstepan​ ,

With the help of Google Gemini, although I vividly remember these episodes since I've probably seen all of them multiple times.

My favorite Twilight Zone episode that featured liminal spaces is titled "Time Enough at Last" (Season 1, Episode 8).

Burgess Meredith plays Henry Bemis, a henpecked bank clerk who just wants to be left alone to read. After surviving a nuclear blast while hiding in the bank vault, he finds himself entirely alone in the shattered ruins of the city.

Before the infamous glasses-breaking twist, the episode delivers a masterclass in liminal space aesthetic: the massive, grand steps of the public library, completely intact but surrounded by total desolation, empty streets, and the haunting silence of a world where all human life has abruptly vanished.

Another of my favorites is titled "The Obsolete Man" (Season 2, Episode 29).

Burgess Meredith plays Romney Wordsworth, a librarian living in a totalitarian future state where religion and literature have been banned. Because his profession has been eliminated and he believes in God, the State deems him "obsolete" and sentences him to death, giving him the choice of how he will be executed.

This episode also leans heavily into a distinct, eerie kind of liminal design. The courtroom where he is tried features an incredibly minimalist, stark, and high-contrast expressionist set—with a massive, absurdly elevated judge's bench and vast, empty shadows. It feels less like a real room and more like a cold, cavernous void designed to swallow up human individuality.

While The Twilight Zone didn't use the modern internet term "liminal space," Rod Serling was the absolute master of the concept—trapping characters in transitional, empty, uncanny, or eerie environments that felt completely disconnected from reality.

Here are some of the most iconic episodes that perfectly embody the "liminal space" aesthetic, where the setting itself is the source of the dread:

1. The Literal Empty Liminal Spaces

• "Where Is Everybody?" (Season 1, Episode 1): A man finds himself entirely alone in a perfectly clean, fully functioning town. The empty streets, the vacant diner with hot coffee, and the abandoned movie theater are textbook examples of a liminal space—a place built for human activity that is completely devoid of humans.

• "Stopover in a Quiet Town" (Season 5, Episode 30): A couple wakes up in an unfamiliar house in an empty, eerie town with no people, no sound, and no moving cars. The realization that everything around them is a hollow imitation of reality makes the setting profoundly unsettling.

• "King Nine Will Not Return" (Season 2, Episode 1): A downed WWII bomber crew member wakes up alone in the vast, desolate African desert next to the wreckage. The endless, shifting sand and the silent, empty hull of the plane create a stark, haunting transitional void.

2. Endless Corridors, Highways, and Transit Hubs

• "The Hitch-Hiker" (Season 1, Episode 16): A woman driving cross-country keeps seeing the same mysterious man on the side of the road. The endless, repetitive stretches of highways, gas stations, and lonely diners late at night perfectly capture the eerie, transient nature of travel.

• "Twenty Two" (Season 2, Episode 17): A hospitalized dancer has a recurring nightmare where she takes an elevator down to Room 22—the hospital morgue. The sterile, dimly lit, stark white hospital corridors and the repetitive elevator descent feel like a claustrophobic limbo.

• "Mirror Image" (Season 1, Episode 21): A woman waiting in a provincial bus depot during a storm starts seeing her exact double. Bus stations late at night are classic real-world liminal spaces, and this episode weaponizes that inherent unease.

3. Conceptual and Abstract Voids

• "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (Season 3, Episode 14): An army major, a clown, a harlequin, a bagpiper, and a ballet dancer are trapped together in a massive, seamless, featureless cylindrical metal cylinder with no windows or doors. It is the ultimate abstract, featureless void.

• "A World of Difference" (Season 1, Episode 23): A businessman is sitting in his office when someone yells "Cut!" and he realizes his entire life's office is actually just a set on a Hollywood soundstage. The half-dismantled, exposed edges of the set represent a jarring transition between two realities.

• "Little Girl Lost" (Season 3, Episode 26): A young girl accidentally tumbles through a temporary portal in her bedroom wall into a bizarre, foggy, multi-dimensional geometric void right inside her own house.

@dan_dassow​ 

>This episode also leans heavily into a distinct, eerie kind of >liminal design. The courtroom where he is tried features an >incredibly minimalist, stark, and high-contrast expressionist set>—with a massive, absurdly elevated judge's bench and vast, >empty shadows. It feels less like a real room and more like a >cold, cavernous void designed to swallow up human >individuality.

many alien labs in lost is space 1965 are exactly set like this, what was scary by itself.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058824/mediaviewer/rm3739861248/?ref_=ttmi_mi_6_1

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058824/mediaviewer/rm3521621505/?ref_=ttmi_mi_95_2

star trek original series, time tunnel and voyage to the bottom of the sea once in a while also had this kind of creepy environment/places.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060036/mediaviewer/rm1940440576/?ref_=ttmi_mi_8_3

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057798/mediaviewer/rm3334373634/?ref_=ttmi_mi_246_3

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708462/mediaviewer/rm2661020161/?ref_=ttmi_mi_2_1

in this episode the elevated judge's bench was really oppressing

Star Trek TOS (Preview S1-E17) - The Squire of Gothos

https://youtu.be/7BZ8R6cq_n0?si=LZKrfUJj15bMH8y9&t=33

Can you target more specific episodes to either Twin Peaks or Severance? I saw that The Shining was listed on an MSN article about stories involving liminal spaces and I kind of wanted to keep this juggernaut out of the mix.

That being said, I will add it as well as convert the short documentary/video essay on the subject, The Art of Liminal Spaces (which I'm certain features the Overlook) into a second Betty White option*.

*I'm a coward and risk-adverse. You couldn't pay me enough to explore these very creepy, very dangerous spaces.