10 Cloverfield Lane Review

"Monsters Come in Many Forms". That is the tagline for the spiritual successor to the massively popular sci-fi monster horror film Cloverfield. Before I go on about the movie first I'm going to talk about the massive viral campaign this movie had as well as warn you in advance that there will be spoilers as I will talk about the ending of the film. I'll give you warning after I give my grade and tell you what I have planned next.

Let's talk about marketing for movies. Where most movies will give you trailers and screenshots, 10 Cloverfield Lane as well as its previous successor had the idea of spreading out the story through the internet. Websites for companies that existed in the movies, social media accounts for characters, and even hidden messages inside websites leave little breadcrumbs for die hard fans of this series. If you really want to find out more about this check out the Cloverfield Clues blog after you watch the movies.

This franchise also likes announcing itself unexpectedly by dropping a trailer only months until its released. That's kind of risky move but one thing that I along with many others commend about the trailers are that they don't give anything away,  a trend that is common amongst a lot of modern day movie trailers (looking at you Terminator Genisys).

The movie is about a woman named Michelle who after leaving home after a fight with her boyfriend, gets into a car accident and wakes up in an underground bunker. She finds out that she was taken there by a man named Howard, who owns the bunker, and is there with another man named Emmet. Howard tells Michele that there was an attack and now they have to stay in the bunker for at least a year or two. Michelle's skepticism of Howard's claims given his irrational behavior and mysterious past give way to dramatic and tense moments as she tries to discover what is really going on outside the bunker.

John Goodman gives a Oscar worthy performance as the crazed conspiracy theory bunker owner Howard. Goodman's stature and figure makes him look imposing next to Michelle and Emmet. Little small ticks give way to a frightening performance. Howard cements the tagline of the movie.

Michelle is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, an actress well known amongst horror movie fans. Michelle is probably one of the smartest characters I've seen in these types of movies. Her actions feel natural for a person in this situation. I found myself agreeing with most of her decisions as I saw myself making those same decisions if I was in her situations. Finally there's Emmet who is played by John Gallagher Jr. He is nice guy who's made some mistakes but is not as interesting as the other two.

10 Cloverfield Lane may not be the exact sequel fans wanted but what we got was a tense thriller that mirrors something you would see out of a Twilight Zone episode. The movies biggest flaw is that its being connected to Cloverfield. It only leaves us with more questions than answers and its ending feels like a cop out but more on that later.

Grade: B+

Coming Attractions: Man of Steel look back, Batman V. Superman review, Daredevil Season Two Review

SPOILER ALERT!!
At the end of the movie we find out that earth is being invaded by aliens, who possibly might be like the creature from the first movie. This is where the movie will split audiences. Those that love the tense claustrophobic thriller might be put off by the sudden shift into alien territory. My guess is that the writers were stuck on how they should end it and decided to go with the aliens and make it a Cloverfield successor. I feel that even if they did not go with aliens, audiences still would've been split on the ending. I personally liked the ending as it gave Michelle the ending to her character arc and added more speculation to the story. But as I said earlier, the movie leaves us with more questions than answers and the ending is where that problem comes from.