Review of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) by Writetoreel — 20 Mar 2016

From WriteToReel.com:

It’s rare to have a film sneak up on me. Or really anyone these days. Everything is leaked, everything has at least something spoiled about it. How they managed to get this under the radar is a feat all on its own. Or maybe it snuck up on people because they slapped Cloverfield on a completely different unrelated script at the last minute.

But having said that, there are some big differences, after reading Hank’s review, I’ll make sure to point them out.

Michelle, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who is a total unknown to me. I was looking at her resume on IMDB and nothing was sticking out.

Michelle is a bit older in the film than she was in the script. She’s about mid-twenties, lives in New York, has a fiancé or boyfriend or a Bradley Cooper. We never see him, only hear his voice over the phone.

She’s leaving him because of a fight they had. This is actually a great way to set up some character development. We know she is prone to packing up and running away when things get difficult. And yes, it actually pays off at the end.

As Michelle is leaving, there’s talk on the car radio about power outages, distracted by her cellphone, her car is crashed into, tossed off the road.

When she wakes, her leg is damaged (I want to say broken, but she seems fine after a while) and chained to a pipe in a creepy room. The only comforts being a gross mattress on the floor. She’s also half naked, so I’m sure about a million things would be bouncing around in your head right now. None of it good.

Then walks in John Goodman’s character Howard. The guy is like 6′ 2″ and has a few hundred pounds over her, you’d be a little terrified too. This is where he informs her she was in a car wreck and he saved her. Also, oh yeah, it’s the end of the world!

Thankfully she isn’t alone with just him, there’s also Emmett. His arm is broken, put in a sling. An accident he caused himself trying to get into the bunker. He was one of the workers who helped Howard build this thing they’re all taking shelter in. He actually saw the bombs drop. After that he begged Howard to let him in.

But the main focus of the film is really the power struggle between Howard and Michelle. It is pretty damn clear right off the bat something is seriously wrong with this dude. Besides the fact he has a bunker in his backyard. He’s also really into conspiracy theories and a strong believer in aliens.

I think the best example or just a window into Howard’s creepy psyche is the scene all three of them are sitting around playing movie Pictionary. It’s Howard’s turn and his movie is Little Women. He gets little right, but has trouble with the word women. Emmett points to Michelle. And Howard’s guesses are “girl” and “princess”. The guy doesn’t even see her as an adult. I mean, he picked princess over woman. For me, I think that was kind of the creepiest thing about him. And maybe the most revealing.

He’s constantly mentioning his daughter whose name escapes me Meghan I think. He even shows Michelle a picture of her. In retrospect though that might not have been such a great idea, seeing as Emmett recognizes her as a girl who went missing a few years ago.

And that’s when things start falling into place about just who this guy is. He’s a serial killer. He ran Michelle off the road so he’d have someone to spend the end of the world with. I think maybe he must be trying to replace his daughter, but when they don’t play along, things get violent...