Many people who flocked to see 10 Cloverfield Lane this weekend were probably expecting a pretty straightforward sequel to the 2008 January hit, a found footage move about a monster terrorizing Manhattan and the group of 20-somethings just trying to survive. Directed by Matt Reeves, that first Cloverfield was a masterstroke of viral marketing. The first trailer premiered before the first Transformers (2007) film, omitting the title completely from the trailer leaving audiences wondering what it was called, other than "Untitled J.J. Abrams Movie" (he serves as producer on both films).
So when two months ago a trailer was dropped announcing a sequel, and that sequel would be out in March, we got another example of some pretty ingenious marketing. I don't know if general audiences were clamoring for a Cloverfield follow-up, the promise of one suddenly popping up just around the corner was enticing enough to generate enough buzz to grab this movie a decent $24 million opening weekend. With an estimated $5 million production budget, that's not too shabby.
What audiences will get, instead, is a fairly well-directed thriller that only really ties in with the Cloverfield universe (if such a thing can be said) at the end. The film opens with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) leaving behind her life in New York and fiancee over an unheard argument. Driving for 100s of miles, she ends up in the country and gets into a car accident. When she wakes, she is handcuffed, attached to an IV, and her leg is set in a make-shift cast to deal with a sprain. She soon discovers she is prisoner to Howard (John Goodman). Or is she?
The movie does a lot of toying with the audiences emotions in terms of whether Howard is to be trusted. Michelle soon discovers she is in Howard's bunker, an underground living space with enough food to last years. There is another fellow there with a broken arm called Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), and Howard explains that a bomb has gone off and fallout has made the outsider world uninhabitable.
The question, naturally, becomes about whether Howard is telling the truth or not. He has a lot of crazy theories about what is happening; that Russia or Al-Qaeda or even aliens are attacking. And though he offers up a lot of proof, Michelle is never quite trusting of him and everything he tells her.
I won't really say much more about the movie's plot except that overall I was surprised by how effective this film was. There is a pervading sense of claustrophobia and terror throughout, and the movie does an excellent job of laying out the space of the bunker and making it feel familiar.
Directed by newcomer Dan Trachtenberg, the film is also extraordinarily suspenseful. An opening title card sequence announces the movie's presence with exciting sound design, and there is a dinner scene that slowly builds to an explosive climax. Really much of the movie is a bit of a slow burn, as some of what Howard says turns out to be real, while other things he says are not.
The film finally ties back into Clovefield at the end with a final 15-minutes that almost feel out of left field and unwelcome. If not for the name attached, the ending would probably be a completely surprising, out-of-nowhere twist. But because it has the name, it has certain duties to fill.
Which isn't a bad thing. Hell, I kind of like the notion of Cloverfield movies telling varying stories about the same incident from different individual stories. The first movie dealt with how a couple of Manhattanites deal with a monster attack, while this deals with one woman's struggle as she is held captive, or is rescued (take your pick), by a different kind of monster (I'm so insightful!).
Ultimately this a solid thriller. It's fairly predictable, but Goodman and Winstead are both great and the movie achieves a lot through primarily dialogue in a confined setting. It's a surprising film and one I actually recommend people check out. As long as you're not gearing yourself for 100% straight up Cloverfield, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you see.
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