Anyway at some point someone will always sneak in a pic or a short video and leak it on to Twitter, Facebook, or Perez Hilton; so the fact that he was basically able to secretly put out a sequel to the blockbuster Cloverfield is astonishing to me. Now I did like Cloverfield but the whole stupid found footage shaky cam method of filming is so annoying that I never want to see it again. But thankfully for all of us, director Dan Trachtenberg chooses to film this pseudo sequel fairly straight.
Now this movie does mess with you from the very beginning, and by beginning I mean the trailers. It looks as though they pretty much give everything away in the preview. You see that Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who is just going to be mentioned as MEW from here on out because that’s way too much to type) is being held captive by the creepy John Goodman in his basement because it’s apparently not safe to go above ground anymore. Well MEW does eventually break free and presumably runs into a similar monster from the first movie and that’s apparently where the real story begins. So you walk away thinking to yourself, well what’s the point of me actually seeing this since I already know the major plot twist?
Well as you’re watching the film and you see her wake up in a basement, the overall creepiness of the film is initially negatively affected because you think that Goodman is really just a good guy who is simply there to help her. But as the story unravels and it takes longer and longer for her to actually escape, you begin to wonder if there is in fact a monster upstairs or if the true monster is in the basement shelter with her in the form of Goodman.
She at least appears to have someone to suffer through this odd and terrifying experience with her in John Gallagher Jr., who claims that he fought his way into the shelter because he saw what was happening outside. But it’s not clear if she can fully trust him either because he for the most part tends to agree with Goodman and his crazy ideas.
So why don’t they just attack this old man and get out? Well Trachtenberg relies heavily on Goodman’s physically imposing presence and his deep and surly voice to help you identify with the characters’ feeling of being trapped. By simply looking at him you can’t help but fear crossing him as he naturally has the look and feel of a violent predator, especially when he gets angry. There are a number of intense scenes that take place during normal innocuous situations like eating dinner or playing family board games like Clue that will have you ready to run out of the theater yourself for safety. But at the same time, there is just enough proof to make you believe what Goodman is saying. So you find yourself trying to justify his weirdness as him simply being an overly protective father figure.
Now just like in the TV show The Walking Dead, you do have to suffer through some moments where there is simply way too much talking about feelings and whatnot but by the time you reach the film’s jaw dropping conclusion, you see that it was all worth it. I went into this movie with some pretty low expectations but left in awe of the performances of everyone involved, well everyone but Bradley Cooper’s that is. He somehow still managed to suck even though he didn’t appear on screen. But everything else in this movie was on point and it’s because of that, that I give this film a rating of TIGHT!
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