Nefarious Films Reviews

"Cloverfield" 2008

Director: Matt Reeves

Writer: Drew Goddard

Starring: TJ Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yusman, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan

The marketing for Cloverfield was a thing of beauty, a lean, mean hype generating machine as unstoppable as the film it promotes’ monstrous star. It was a genius manipulation of net-savvy genre fans who having been teased into a frenzy of excitement by that wonderful, enigmatic trailer with no name were sent on various treasure hunts and paper trails to find tiny scraps of information about what the hell was making all the commotion in New York. Of course this is what producer JJ Abrams, the man who created Lost, is best at. Although recent form has seen that series decline into a sprawling succession of baffling events and constant answer-evasion, Cloverfield is most reminiscent of that amazing pilot episode – it takes a well-used concept and twists it into something fresh, exciting, invigorating and utterly compelling. Cloverfield not only lives up to the hype, it exceeds it.

In an amusing twist on expectations, all the Internet scouring and clue hunting was an enormous smokescreen. The truth was hiding out in the open the entire time. This is a film about a giant monster attacking Manhattan told from the point of view of a normal guy with a camcorder. That’s really all there is to it and it really is all the better for that. The obvious ‘Blair Witch meets Godzilla’ summaries are right on the money. Sort of. Cloverfield actually draws from a huge array of influences but at no point does it feel in any way derivative. This has a lot to do with the ‘real footage’ approach the film takes.

Although the film has to make a few contrivances to keep the action flowing in a form acceptable for a cinema audience this feels about as close to a real monster attack as is possible. There are no recognizable actors to distract us from this illusion of reality and this also means that there are no obvious heroes, survivors or victims. We know nothing about these people at the start of the film and as various members of the group get picked off in various ways we are as surprised as the surviving characters on screen. The fact that we also care about their plight is down to the great scrip and fantastic naturalistic performances of the young cast who may be unknown but are far from untalented.

Of course the main performance is by the film’s real star, the thirty storey tall unnamed behemoth with the penchant for beheading national landmarks. The design on the creature is fantastic; it’s an ungainly horrifically ugly thing which looks very little like anything you’ve seen before. Although it is shown in full view several times throughout the film it is still difficult to distinguish what shape it actually is and this greatly works in the film’s favour, we never get bored of or complacent about the creature’s presence. All we can make out is that it has a big fishy tail, giant spindly legs and really big mouth. This thing exudes threat and danger in a way no big monster has ever done before it.

The effects work on the behemoth itself are impressive enough (though they do take on that CG sheen just a couple of times) but more eye-widening are the effects of its rampage. Collapsed buildings, crumbling brickwork and a sense of the entire world coming down around you all compliment to the general atmosphere of complete devastation. There is an odd kind of beauty in some of the visuals; a skyscraper leaning against a neighbouring building in the eerie empty calm of an evacuated city makes for a particularly impressive image.

Any film that involves the destruction of New York is going to invoke memories and associations with 9/11 and Cloverfield is obviously making some allusions here. The references to that tragedy are overt and unapologetic. In a similar move to Spielberg’s War of the World’s it uses these now-familiar images to great effect in tapping into a very real and in many ways new fear. This says some interesting things about how we are collectively dealing with that catastrophe and making sense of it by absorbing it into popular culture and re-presenting as entertainment. It is not disrespect, it is acknowledgement and acceptance.

The real masterstroke in Cloverfield is the denial of any form of information about what is happening. The beast is never named and only a couple of very scant references give any clue as to where this thing came from or what it wants. This is a good thing. Despite the film’s lack of a traditional climax, it does have a very real, and satisfying end. This may frustrate some viewers hoping for Godzilla 2 but the film is without doubt better for it.

A surprisingly short film but a surprisingly effective one, Cloverfield is a real thrill. It is a reminder of just how good ‘dumb’ movies can be. Unusual, exciting and accomplished in every respect – this is a rare and genuine pleasure.

Rating: 9/10