10 Cloverfield Lane

In the past, I have been highly skeptical of the horror genre; honestly, I still am. However, Netflix's original show Stranger Things changed my perspective, if only a little bit. (If you haven't seen Stranger Things, stop doing anything else and go binge watch it right now. Right. Now.) I've started watching a few light horror movies and have enjoyed what I've seen so far. The kind of horror movie I am interested in is extremely limited. I don't care for the violence-as-horror subgenre, and I don't appreciate movies about demon possession (which I believe is in fact a real thing and not entertainment material). I also don't like jump scares, which I think are a cheap way of manipulating audiences. That leaves a small slice of psychological horror or monster movies that I'm interested in. After watching Stranger Things, I saw Super 8. From what I heard, 10 Cloverfield Lane was something that could fall into this narrow category.

I was not disappointed. The opening scene shows a young woman packing her things and talking on the phone. It is very ominous, with a powerfully foreboding score, close-up camera shots, and being unable to hear any of her conversation. She begins to drive somewhere and her fear becomes tangible as she drives through dark forests or nervously looks at people in a large pickup truck while she fills up on gas. Again, she heads out into the darkness only to get in an accident. When she wakes up, she is in an underground bunker with an IV stuck into her arm and her leg chained to the wall. Howard, the owner of the bunker comes in and tells her that there has been some kind of attack which has left the air contaminated and she can't leave. The rest of the movie turns on whether this is true or if she has been kidnapped by the kind of psychopath that kidnaps women and imprisons them in underground bunkers.

I don't want to say anything more about the plot, but 10 Cloverfield Lane will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through. There is quite a twist at the end of the movie that I did not see coming at all. I suspect it might have been a little foreseeable if you've seen Cloverfield, but I haven't and frankly don't have any desire to. In the end, I'd say it's worth the trip down Cloverfield Lane.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Not too scary but scary enough; it fit the bill for what I'm looking for in a horror movie. Also, it doesn't have too many jump scares. Both John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are great. John Goodman turns out to the perfect casting for Howard. He is a menacing and large figure that sometimes seems crazy or even possibly violent but is just as frequently friendly and sociable. I also love how Winstead's character turns out to be different from the stereotypical horror heroine. Instead of blindly wandering into danger and then panicking with no plan, she is cautious but brave when necessary.I also love the way the cinematography builds the sense of foreboding by close-ups or by having Goodman's character looming in the background. If you don't like horror at all, you probably won't like this either.

Caveat Spectator

The violence is pretty low, but there is some blood. There are a few disturbing images, including some dead and decaying pigs, and a very brief shot of a person dissolving in acid. Some language. 10 Cloverfield is pretty intense throughout. There is also the implication of the possibility of women being kept as sex slaves in the bunker, although it's never mentioned and really more assumed by the audience's knowledge about the reasons for young women to be kidnapped and locked in bunkers in real life.