It’s been a long time coming, but we finally have a sequel to the great 2008 found footage disaster movie, Cloverfield. Sort of.
You could say that what we have here is an excellent enclosed-space thriller with some references to Cloverfield thrown in. And you wouldn’t be that far wrong. It’s clear that the nods to the 2008 feature – and there are indeed quite a few – could have been included late in the day, either through postproduction or reshoots, but at no point does this feel unnecessary.
Of course, it helps that The Cellar was indeed a great script to begin with. To give the vaguest of story outlines, the film concerns Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Michelle, who finds herself in an underground bunker that’s been built by John Goodman’s Howard, a man who seems ever-so-slightly unhinged.
In terms of screenwriting 101, this is really, really polished stuff. There are so many delicious payoffs that surprise because the set-ups were so cleverly woven into the story. There are no awkward Chekov gun-type situations, and the pacing is absolutely perfect. Dan Trachtenberg’s direction is wonderfully on point, and the cinematography is fantastic, often deliberately holding back from showing you what you want to see. Bear McCreary’s soundtrack echoes Bernard Herrmann, whilst the opening scene feels like it’s straight out of Psycho‘s first act. If you love your Hitchcock, then you’re bound to enjoy this too.
I do wonder if this film would be as good the second time around, but the main problem with this patchwork approach to filmmaking is that we all know it has Cloverfield in the title. I can only imagine that this robbed some of the mystery from the original screenplay. It makes me wonder if Abrams and co. considered keeping the links between the two films secret even up until release – has that ever been done?
10 Cloverfield Lane is the sequel I never knew I wanted. It’s a fantastic thriller that goes to show just how skilled Winstead is, and that she should be offered more than sequels to popular films (this is the fifth sequel, by my counting!)