10 Cloverfield Lane

Movie Name: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Year of Release: 2016

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Stars: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., Suzanne Cryer

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6

Synopsis & Review:

Producer J.J. Abrams is back, following his astounding success with "Star Wars". This time around, he his producing a sequel to one of his features that has been successful, both commercially and critically, "Cloverfield". The film follows the story of Michelle, a young woman who wants to be a fashion designer, who leaves her boyfriend, and while driving gets involved in a dramatic car accident. When she comes to her senses, she finds herself chained to a wall, and discovers she's in a bunker alongside two other men. She meets Howard, the man responsible for her captivity, who has designed the bunker to survive a possible alien invasion or massive war. He informs Michelle that the outside world has been contaminated by a chemical attack and there's no possible way to live outside the bunker. Michelle conforms to life in the bunker, until she discovers possible indications that Howard may not have been as truthful as he indicated.
"10 Cloverfield Lane" is Dan Trachtenberg's feature debut, and it succeeds in building the tension between these three characters living together, when the world has apparently collapsed and there's nothing to go back to. The microcosms of these three characters and how they interact is well constructed, as it slowly showcases more details about them, though Howard is never fully explored as it should have been. The director opts not to show much of the outside world, making the bunker the core of the story, however during the last part of the film, it suddenly becomes deeply influenced by Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds", both in tone and aesthetic, without being as fully realized as that film was. The performances from the three leads are solid, as is the wonderful score from Bear McCreary. An auspicious beginning.