10 Cloverfield Lane

Like many people, I was surprised and delighted to see the trailer for this movie earlier in the year.
The trailer was intense, and confusing.  How was this a sequel to Cloverfield?  The answer is it isn't.  I am not going to go over that much however.  If you want that, it is pretty well documented in other reviews, which I am sure you have read by now.

I wasn't a huge fan of Cloverfield to be honest.  So the link to that film in the original had me kind of wondering if I wanted to see this at all.  With that in mind, I decided to see it because I am a fan of John Goodman.  If you are going to see this because you are a fan of him then you have chosen the right movie.

Goodman gives one of his best performances in this film.  Actually the movie is acting gold as far as I am concerned.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead is engaging in this movie and you want to see her get a happy ending.  John Gallagher Jr. is also enjoyable to watch, though he doesn't have as much to do in the movie.  He has a great scene at the dinner table that is great for tension and does he does add to the film.

The basic plot is John Goodman plays Howard who saves Winstead's character Michelle from a crash and brings her to his fallout shelter as some form of apocalypse has just happened.  Emmett played by Gallagher seems to have forced his way in as well and so the three are stuck underground together, at least for the time being.  But did the apocalypse really happen or is Howard just a crazy guy setting them up?

None of that is spoilers by the way.  You could gather all that from the trailers for the movie.  The idea that something is out there, maybe, drives the film and its tension along with the acting of the three people.  I always say when a film has a very limited cast and manages to be good, the actors are clearly very good at what they do.  Each character is worthy of paying attention to and all three have their time to shine.  The tension grows throughout and the answers don't come quickly.  I honestly really liked this film.

With this and The VVitch having come out this year already, I am pretty happy with the future of horror.  Last year plenty of great horror films came out as well.  Maybe there is a renewed interest in the genre.  If whatever the next movie to have Cloverfield slapped onto it is even close to this good, the 'Franchise' of Cloverfield will have a long time fan.  Go see this movie as soon as possible if you are horror fan.  Finally people are making good horror films again, even with the dreaded death nail of a PG-13 Rating attached to them, and this deserves serious attention.