Rank: 3.5/5
A film shrouded in secrecy from its initial production up until the release date has finally reached theaters for the viewers’ verdict.
“10 Cloverfield Lane,” a sequel to the popular 2008 film “Cloverfield,” stars John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. This film is much better than its predecessor and somewhat lives up to the hype.
The film begins with one of the most inventive title sequences in recent memories. It sets the mood for the tense and unsettling character study.
After a rough car accident, Michelle (Winstead) finds herself in an underground bunker. Howard (Goodman) is the man who found her and tended to her wounds. When Michelle wakes, chained to a pipe, Howard explains to her she cannot leave because the air outside has been contaminated and everybody is presumed dead.
Michelle finds out there is another man in the bunker named Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) who broke his arm trying to fight his way into the bunker before he was infected by the air.
While it is in some ways a sequel to the monster movie “Cloverfield” it is a completely different film and overall a more successful one.
This is a horror film, but not one that depends on a creature for its scares, it depends entirely on the poisonous dynamic that the three share in the bunker.
The film owes its biggest debt to Goodman’s performance as Howard. He brings a well-executed balance of maniac and protector which keeps the audience constantly questioning whether or not they should believe what he is telling them.
The film is impressive by nature, effectively creating a character study about trust and deceit backdropped by the end of the world setting which takes place in the single location of the bunker.
With this being a sequel to “Cloverfield,” it follows the suit of its predecessor with the film including the plotline of a monster who is awoken and is terrorizing the planet. This is what forces Goodman and company into the bunker.
A great deal of the great suspense throughout this film is discredited because, while the characters don’t know, the viewer is aware of the outside dangers.
The last 15 minutes of “10 Cloverfield Lane” are incredibly forced. The tone shifts to feel like a completely different kind of movie with none of the discipline or innovation of the first hour and a half.
It stems from the film working its way to fit itself into the confines of the “Cloverfield” story.
While the majority of the film is terrifying in a way that few films are now-a-days, it is unfortunate the “Cloverfield” sequel has to follow the lead of its predecessor.