BELLE DE JOUR (1967)
We certainly wouldn’t mind spending a lazy afternoon—a week?—with secret prostitute Catherine Deneuve, plying her trade in resistance to a pent-up lifestyle. But what exactly does that Asian businessman bring to the party? It buzzes. The object is never revealed. (We have ideas.)—JR

CREEPSHOW (1982)
The chained wooden crate discovered by henpecked college professor Hal Holbrook contains a ravenous Arctic monster that nullifies his need for a divorce lawyer. Maude pinup Adrienne Barbeau does a brilliantly abrasive turn as the spouse we’d all like to feed to a sharp-toothed animal.—KU

DUNE (1984)
This black pain box employed by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood as a rite of passage—stick your hand in, flesh-burning sensation ensues—gives young prince Paul Atreides the first inkling of his messianic destiny. Any object that makes Kyle MacLachlan do his best Shatner scream is fine by us.—KU

HELLRAISER (1987)
Sure, that ornate jewel box in Clive Barker’s Grand Guignol goth-horror flick may look like a harmless curio. But guess what? It’s a portal to hell—the kind that unleashes demons with nails in their noggin—and this metallic, medieval-era Rubik’s Cube still gives us the heebie-jeebies.—DF

KISS ME DEADLY (1955)
What is the “Great Whatzit” in the suitcase that has everyone in postwar L.A. aflutter? A hint: the end of civilization. Robert Aldrich turned a typical Mickey Spillane yarn into an apocalypse-noir classic; the glowing packages of Repo Man and Pulp Fiction are both direct homages.—DF

MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001)
Things are going so well for Hollywood newbie Betty—she even nails a big audition. But then her nosy girlfriend has to go and turn the key in this mysterious blue box. The movie is never the same. Welcome to Lynchland, and the cryptic director’s strangest masterpiece.—JR

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
You have to give it up for the chutzpah of cowriters George Lucas, Philip Kaufman and Lawrence Kasdan, who turned Judaism’s Ark of the Covenant into the ultimate MacGuffin. What’s inside? We’ll quote Indiana Jones himself: “Lightning. Fire. Power of God or something.”—JR

SEVEN (1995)
The climax of David Fincher’s serial-killer thriller hinges on a mysterious gift delivered to Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt whose contents are, tellingly, never shown. “What’s in the box!?” Pitt screams. Trust us, dude: You do not want to know.—DF

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