10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Review

Ever since this was announced I was skeptical but also intrigued I loved the original mainly due to my found footage fetish. So after a while I finally got round to watching it and although they’re not directly related through characters or anything I decide I had to do a back to back watching of both films. After the first I was in the mood for more and this would obviously be totally different to the original film.

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Writers: Josh Campbell (story), Matthew Stuecken (story)

Stars: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr.

Run Time: 104 minutes

Budget: $15 million

Trivia – The film’s life began as a script called “The Cellar” (which had nothing to do with the Cloverfield universe, and was at one time also known as “Valencia”). The script was acquired by J.J. Abrams‘ production company Bad Robot and adapted to become “10 Cloverfield Lane”.

Trivia – Mary Elizabeth Winstead was the first and only choice for the lead role of Michelle.

If you’ve seen the trailers you’ll know this is very different from the first film. Things start off with Michelle leaving her husband and getting into her car. She stops for gas and a creepy looking car also stops at the same station, after filling up she heads off down the road when suddenly her car is hit and she spins round and flies off the road.

Michelle wakes up dazed and confused and more importantly chained to the wall on a small bed in a small room. It doesn’t take long for John Goodman’s Howard to enter the locked room, he’s very vague about what’s going on and this obviously worries Michelle. Although he claims to be helping her she tries a few ways to get out of the room.

Eventually she is let out and here she meets Emmett it starts to become clear that Howard isn’t a nice guy at all and is effectively trapping her in his fallout shelter. Michelle tries to escape but her plan only confirms that something isn’t right in the outside world. Once she learns a few more things about Howard her and Emmett put together a plan to escape.

Howard gets more and more creepy and things don’t go well for Michelle and Emmett in their bid to escape. All this leads to a final battle with Howard after this we are shown what is really going on outside the bunker as the film successfully adds to the Cloverfield lore whilst leaving things open for more films.

The Good

• John Goodman is brilliant I don’t understand why he doesn’t get more roles.
• John Gallagher Jr. as Emmett and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle are both really strong actors and with such a small cast it’s a good job.
• I enjoyed watching Howard as we learnt more and more about the man.
• The trapped atmosphere and constant worry that the story develops for Michelle is really well done.
• The ending was great, like I said really adds to the whole Cloverfield mythology.
• Effects and make up as you’d expect are top notch.

The Bad

• I’m not sure if it’s bad as such but the film could have worked well as a film in it’s own rights without being linked to Cloverfield. I guess if that’s good or bad depends on if you wanted more Cloverfield stuff or would be happy with a trapped inside with an unstable bloke type film.
• I know it would make the film pointless but at times I just kept thinking why don’t they just sneak up on Howard while he watching TV and smash him over the head.
• The whole Michelle leaving her husband seemed a bit odd to me, I know they needed to give the character some kind of story but I’d have preferred a bit more mystery about her.

There’s not too much wrong with this film and it’s well worth a watch. It’s tense, atmospheric and John Goodman gives a good a performance as you’ll see from anyone in a horror based film. It’s also made me like the idea of some more Cloverfield films although with today’s entertainment TV would suit it even better.

Overall Score – 8/10