Wednesday Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane

I had two reactions to 10 Cloverfield Lane. The first was a strong suspicion that The Ring has just been replaced as the go-to example when arguing in defense of PG-13 horror. This movie is at times terrifying, and I can't think of a single scene that would have been enhanced with gore or nipples.

Secondly, I felt a bit disappointed that the trailer gave away quite as much as it did. The first few minutes of the film provide plenty of fodder for a trailer, with our protagonist waking up to find she's been locked in a room by a strange man played by John Goodman. The trailer gives away that they're in a bunker and that there's another man with them, as well as hinting at the outside threat. For a movie that marketed itself primarily around secrecy, it's amazing just how much is given away.

However, you could argue that that's the point. If there is a single element that runs between the Cloverfield movies it's marketing that teases a movie with twists and turns, and then delivers something shockingly straight forward. I don't say that as a criticism, in our world of shocking twists it's often far more surprising for a movie to proceed in the most logical manner possible.

Does that mean that this movie is without a twist? Not at all, it does have a twist. But that twist isn't the point. The point of the film is these three good actors in a tense situation, with John Goodman stealing the show as a character who can invoke both sympathy and terror with equal ease. A lot of the film consists both of the characters navigating their own interactions, and dealing with situations that could realistically arise from living in a fall-out shelter.

There's apparently some on the internet who didn't like the twist. I'm not among them. However, if the movie does have a flaw it's that the twist was dragged on far too long. I remember sitting in the theatre and thinking “There's the twist, roll credits!” The movie then continued for another five or ten unnecessary minutes. I could see an argument that the finale few minutes are needed to show us how our main character has been changed by her experiences, but I feel like the scenes immediately preceding the twist had already put those changes on full display. The ending comes off as downright redundant.

That's not to say the film is bad, however. Even at it's worst it's still entertaining, and at it's best it's a Masterpiece. It left me hoping for a long-running anthology of Cloverfield films, and speculating on what could come next. I can't recommend it strongly enough.