10 Cloverfield Lane - Movie Review

united international pictures philippines

’10 Cloverfield Lane’ follows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) moving out of town after a break-up with a boyfriend. A car accident brought her to the premises of Howard (John Goodman), who held her hostage for good and potentially bad reasons.

A big surprise when it was announced, the Dan Trachtenberg-directed thriller is as mysterious as its marketing stint. JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot only revealed the film's existence to the public only a couple of months before its release date, leaving us with a couple of non-revealing teasers and a synopsis that only says “Monsters come in many forms” to deal with until its opening. I’m glad they have to go over-secretive on this project and not knowing anything prior to seeing it. For the most part, ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ is a film that enjoys keeping its audience guessing for what is to come.

The fact that the audience only knows what Michelle know plays a big thing to the film’s eventual revelation, pulling out a high level of uncertainty and a hefty amount of questions. John Goodman’s Howard is also a separate mystery of his own. By the end of the film, there’s a hint of unresolved questions floating around asking us if he’s right about his promises all along or not. Goodman terrifically portrayed this character, restraining himself somewhere in the middle of being good and bad. The role could’ve been silly but he somehow made it work, even more than expected. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher, Jr. also gave great performances as well.

Calling itself as a “blood relative” to the 2008 found-footage thriller ‘Cloverfield’, ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ is a film of its own, disregarding the events of the former to present a claustrophobic thriller that’s actually scarier than aliens invading a planet. The constant shifting of the tone from suspense to dark comedy adds the enjoyment of it all, playing with its audience and telling them that something’s terrible is about to come, even if it ends up to all of them gut-bursting with laughter.

The geek rates it 9/10!