10 Cloverfield Lane
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Talent: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr.
Release Date: 18th March 2016
The Cloverfield franchise expands to tell the story of Michelle (Winstead), who wakes up after a car crash to find herself in the apocalypse-scenario bomb-shelter of middle-aged Howard (Goodman), who informs her that a mysterious attack – chemical or nuclear, perhaps – has rendered the atmosphere above uninhabitable. Also present is Emmett (Gallagher Jr.), a happy-go-lucky burnout who helped Howard to build his shelter but never thought it would have to be used.
Director Dan Trachtenberg makes great hay from the concept in his feature debut, managing to balance knowledge, suspicion, tension and, occasionally, outright horror quite skilfully and, until the final sequence at least, without ever condescending to the cheap scares that are the mainstay of today’s mainstream horror production. Its somewhat objectionable focus on and treatment of the (often bound) female body aside, particularly in its earlier stages, this is a well-executed, scary piece of filmmaking of certain ingenuity.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
