Review of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) by Queenie H — 02 Jul 2016

I LOVED this movie, real life clichés, hokey movie tie ins and all! I lived it because after over 50 years if getting movie predictionsright..this one had me guessing and over thinking..right up until Howard Shot Emmett.

In a nutshell. Howard is a child serial rapist/killer who also happens to be a proper.

If he had a want add it would have been, "wanted, young nubile girl to share underground live near with emotionally unstable, paranoid man in need of a life/wife). Must look like a feasible girl, and be willing to stay with me forever (or at least until you look to old for me to pretend you are a girl,) cook, tend to me and answer to the name of my first love, Meagan.

Must be loyal and eventually consent to be my girl...should have experience serving intentional Meagan trolling replacement missions, and not look to deeply into if I was ever really married, or really had a daughter, or if by default, all my kidnapped girls are not called Meagan.

Must have dark brown hair, be a certain size and willing to wear t shirts with Paris in them.

Prior experience as an abused child or invest survivor is a plus.

WARNING: all males who attempt to apply shall be viewed as unwanted rivals and dealt with appropriately.

One male is needed to refine work on my hidden love nest.".

Face it, if any pedophiles it serial killers have proper tendencies an apocalypse like this is made to order: no cops..ever...a great hideout, and victims who owe you theur life and by dint if elimination, their allegiance and their bodies.

I thought Emmett was just acting clueless and either was an accomplice I'd Howard's or was the mastermind and Michele was actually confiding in her true captor, who was painting Howard as the villain. WRONG. OVER THOUGHT THAT IDEA..which was not made clear when he got shot...I imagined Emmett was lying about Brittany to throw Michele off and make her distrust Howard who, despite his creepiness was the misunderstood, easily misconstrued good guy.

I'm guessing either Howard never was married or had a daughter and just called all his captives Megan or he had a daughter, molested her and mom ran away with her daughter to escape him.

Definitely Howard was looking for a girlfriend..and a wife/nursemaid. He makes this clear when he tells Michelle she will be cooking and to take care if his gash.

The truck accident was no accident..he targeted her and stole her. The bunker was built for dual purposes ...to hold kidnapped victims and as a bolt hole.

Michelle was a flawed victim. Having suffered abuse herself, she ether froze or ran but she did nit hep herself or any other victims.

The final layer if this movie shows Michelle galvanized to help herself first escaping the false safety if the bunker, then the false safety of the truck, then the offered false safety of refuge in Baton Rouge.

The movie is a commentary in inertia, deer in the headlights and thriving through adversity .

Having finally been moved to help herself and in THIS TIME, the irony of running away perceived as strength (earlier she sees it as her lifelong weakness), and willing to break shackles figuratively, and metaphorically and the shackles of dependency...Michelle gets her mojo...when she was younger , she did nit rake up for herself...as an adult she was still ruled by her abused past and did not take up for a child, but facing the human monster of a serial killer (presuming Brittany as well as Emmett are in the acid and maybe Megan and her mom also are in the acid...).

Michelle finally realizes she is her own hero and her own Savior .

Howard has issues..he needs sex..he resents/fears other men..he wants a twosome and his happily ever after...he is not a hero..Howard was an opportunist with great timing.

Howard also could not stomach or acknowledge grown women..he could not even say the word woman or think of Michelle as grown..he saw her as younger and fit for courting..which is exactly the mode he went into, as soon as his "rival" was killed.

I enjoyed the nuances inferences and narratives..as an M.O. many men who rape their daughters see them as wife replacements..meant to cook, clean, tend to them and service them in bed..this actually us sociologically documented.

Emmett was a problem..he knew too much and was competition for the girl. Had this been a TV series, there is little doubt Howard would have plotted to do away with Emmett because his true desires (which in some level he knew were not socially acceptable) could not be revealed as long as Emmett was alive.

Also, Emmett knew too much about the bunker as in when it was built and how that relates to a girl disappearing.

Other clues if Howard's mindset was him getting spiffed up after Emmett was dead, and him making Michelle complicit by having her help to drag the acid barrel into the bathroom).

Howard's rage when faced with Michelle betrayal was out if proportion and made no sense if he rescued her..if she wanted to leave, why not push her out?

Howard's abhorrence to the grown woman also was apparent in his refusal to help her. All survivalist especially military trained know chemical burns and radiation are not contagious and if the air was that dangerous, the damaged woman could not have been outside arguing for so long.

This is why I lived the movie..a lot of nuance from Easter eggs in the poster , to all the hidden yet apparent meanings in the movie, including tidying them up later.

Turns out my distrust of Emmett was misplaced...I never knew until after she was out if the bunker, if there was a true apocalypse or not.

The plot was apparent and deliberate...so deliberate, that those if us skilled at plot twists, twisted ourselves up.

The odd thing was, throughout the movie, I felt I was watching a TV pilot.

The funny thing is, how many people think Howard was telling the truth and saved Michelle.

This is soooooo brilliant. Howard told a SHADE of the truth to suit his own agenda (kidnapping and keeping a partner in his bunker) he deliberately caused her to wreck, but even at the end oeople do not see the irony in a knee stabilizing bandage being C combined with a chained restraint..

They don't put 2+2 together with Brittany wanting help and the picture of him holding her arm..like a dad? Or like a lover? Or the pensive, strained look on her face..him grinning...her looking like she could jump out of her own skin...they don't see Brittany wearing Meagan's clothes and as she discovers the picture, Michelle having been dressed in the same top..those are bridal clothes..each "girl" a replacement for Megan, or "Megan" being a euphemism for young girl to be made unwilling and captive sex partner to asocial, maladapted Howard.

Finally, "heroes" don't try to stab the people they save if they want to leave. Owners are outraged when property acts like they have rights..but heroes or caring people let adults choose.even if the choices are bad.

TWO THUMBS and one big toe UP. cool points lost for the hokey alien craft and monster and obvious bid to Michelle finally finding herself.????????