10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) – Review

When growing up we are constantly being warned about the world around us. Through that we learn to watch out and also develop a sense of knowing whether or not a situation might be dangerous. Movies do the same in a way, even though that usually isn’t in realistic situations (because when was the last time you had to fight an alien that was present on your spaceship?). They will go to extremes in order to present the viewer something they have not experienced before and entertain them. As you watch more movies from a specific genre, you gain some knowledge which you’ll bring to the table when watching the next one. You use that “experience” in order to predict what will happen to the characters in the situation they find themselves in. Not only guessing what will happen, but also because a good movie will make you forget about yourself and gives you the feeling you are that character. Whether or not you want it your survival instinct kicks in and experience is important in that. And 10 Cloverfield Lane succeeds in playing with those instincts.

The movie opens with the very emotional Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who is driving her car while being called by her boyfriend, with whom she has had a fight. It is dark on the road, she doesn’t pay attention for a moment and the next time she wakes up she finds herself on a mattress in an empty room. She quickly realizes that she’s being held in an underground bunker and is being taken care of by Howard (John Goodman), an imposing man who assures her that it is for her own good that she stays and that she isn´t allowed to go outside. Staying within the bunker is the only way she will be able to survive a chemical attack, together with Howard and a third person, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr). But the question is whether the information she’s being given is actually true.

 Within the genre of the thriller Hitchcock was, and in my opinion still is, king. The master of suspense always managed to trick his audiences in assuming the wrong things and play with expectations. Psycho is a good example of that. Director Dan Trachtenberg manages to do this too by bringing a solid script to the screen. He immediately manages to do that with the shocking opening. The movie has a lot of duality, where you can never pin down the characters and their motivation for doing something. You are constantly wondering whether or not Goodman’s character means well for Michelle and if he is telling the truth or not. And every time you get a sense you know the answer, new information is presented which spins your expectations into a whole other direction. The end result is a very suspenseful film, from start to finish. Partly that is because of the convincing acting by the three leads, who present a lot of subtlety. Trachtenberg really impresses with his feature debut and I hope he will do so in the future.