Bearing almost no resemblance to the hit-and-miss 2008 found-footage film Cloverfield, the new J. J. Abrams project, 10 Cloverfield Lane, is the ultimate things-that-go-bump-in-the-night psychological thriller.
Barely surviving a suspicious car accident, Michelle (a wonderfully convining Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up to find herself in an underground bunker with two men. Louisiana survivalist Howard (John Goodman) tells her that a huge nuclear attack has rendered the outside air unbreathable, and that their only hope of survival is to remain in his DIY fallout shelter.
Despite the creature comforts of a 1950s family room, Howard’s controlling and menacing nature makes Michelle desperate to escape. She concocts a haphazard plan with the third occupant of the bunker, Howard’s neighbour Emmett ( John Gallagher, Jr.), After taking matters into her own hands, the young woman finally discovers the truth about the outside world, and boy is it worth the wait.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a one-location pressure-cooker that’s constantly on the verge of exploding. It does a spectacular job of capturing nightmare logic. The audience can sense danger, even if it can’t be explained. Is Howard a saviour or a menace? Are we rooting for Michelle to escape, or will escape be suicide? Is Howard telling the truth? The bunker isn’t that bad, right. There’s loads of videos and food and even a jukebox. What’s a year or two down there, really?
Goodman, “grabbing his juiciest screen role in years”, is the absolute highlight of the film. First-time director, Dan Trachtenberg, does an excellent job of letting the claustrophobia and menacing atmosphere of the bunker slowly wash over the audience over the course of its 1 hour 46 minute run-time so that by the end, you’re jumping at everything.
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