JJ Abram's Bad Robot production company has churned out some very interesting things the likes of which you don't get to see that often. In a period of adaptations and remakes bidding upon the dollar of already beloved properties Bad Robot dares to put their cash behind the new and secretive productions. It is so reminiscent of Amblin entertainment you can tell the love the company has for the film's of Spielberg's company. Audiences had no idea what they were getting into with Close Encounters, E.T or even Indiana Jones to some degree. Bad Robot takes it a step further and gives you a thought of a film and invites you to watch it unravel. 10 Cloverfield Lane unravels in so many different ways and we are given a film that can fit into several genres. The blood relative of Matt Reeves Kaiju found footage film Cloverfield, Dan Trachtenberg's film sets itself apart completely and becomes an amazing new beast.



Michelle leaves he boyfriend in the middle of the night in a hurry unable to handle something tragic that's happened between them. Suddenly her car is stricken from the road and she awakens in a bunker chained to a wall with her injuries bandaged and tended to. Her captor/savior Howard reveals something catastrophic has taken place outside the bunker and the human race save for the two of them and a stowaway named Emmet are all that's left. Over the course of the film we learn the stories of these three people forced to live together and find out someone is not who they appear to be. As the mystery inside the bunker unravels, the present danger outside worsens until the two problems collide for a dramatic and heart pounding end.



This is an experience of terror and tenseness that is upheld through amazing dialogue delivered through superb acting. John Goodman's Howard keeps you guessing his motives throughout as he delivers a performance that is unsettling but keeps you thinking there is a perfect method to his madness. He is as menacing as he is uncomfortably caring at times which confuses the characters within the film as well as the viewer. He is the doomsday prepper that actually faces doomsday and it's such a scary thing to watch as the tasks he performs he does without a second thought because he has planned for them his entire life. Goodman himself has played many a caring father figure role in films and it's a matter of wanting to trust him because of the evidence backing his claims combined with his fatherly demeanor within the film but at the flip of a coin his survival instincts kick in making you question him. Goodman delivers his role like a psychopath and it's brilliant.



Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle has possibly the best story arc evolution in my opinion since Nicholas Holt's performance as Nux from Mad Max. You watch her run away from certain problems which inevitably get her into bigger messes but she quickly adapts watching Goodman's character taking the best aspects of him combined with her own instincts and her ingenuity. She notices every little thing and uses them to her advantage of solving the mysteries of the film and once faced with those mysteries she stops running and confronts them head on in brilliant ways utilizing all her skills and everything she has learned. She might be the best female protagonist since Ripley in Alien and should the franchise continue with her she could easily be as legendary.



Dan Trachtenberg directs most of the film almost like a Hitchcockian thriller. Many of the scenes establishing shots of horror imagery utilize different angles to hide the worst of them while others will linger on them enough to let the musical score build up the terror within the audience members watching it. Bear McCreary, who is the composer on most genre films nowadays, delivers another amazing score that works so perfectly with Trachtenberg's shots.



This is easily one of my favorite films so far this year. However to fully enjoy it you need to experience it first hand. You need to know it will have no direct correlation to Matt Reeves Cloverfield that we can see so far. A majority of the movie will be a thriller mixed with slasher elements that will lead into some of the most fantastic fight scenes in the last fifteen minutes that descends into a whole other film. With those notions you should enjoy watching the brilliant madness unfold. I give it five out of five missing puzzle pieces during the apocalypse.