10 Cloverfield Lane ‘Spoiler Free’ Review – The Sequel That’s Not Quite a Sequel

It was only a few weeks ago when the masses were hit with the surprise trailer from the surprise sequel to 2008’s Cloverfield, 10 Cloverfield Lane. While Cloverfield sported then unknown names like Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan and T.J. Miller, the trailer for Lane showcased the talents of John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. and a surprising lack of monsters. While 10 Cloverfield Lane feels less like a sequel and more like a spin-off, there’s no denying what a solid film going experience this turned out to be, while also offering a fairly interesting take on the future of franchise cinema.

10 Cloverfield Lane centers around Winstead’s Michelle who, after being involved in a car crash, wakes up in a bunker and is being held by Goodman’s Howard. According to Howard, the world has ended from either a nuclear or chemical attack and there’s no way they can leave the safety of the bunker. Also occupying the bunker is Emmett, a younger man who was lucky enough to get his way into the bunker before Howard sealed it shut. The question becomes whether or not Howard is telling the truth or not – and about what.

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“Goodman commands the screen as both the physically and mentally imposing Howard, giving everyone a sense of being trapped with no hope for escape.”

Where Lane shines is in its excellent script, top notch performances and great direction. The script is tight, not forgetting about anything, keeping its loose ends tied up like prisoners in an underground bunker. It develops the story solely through character development, using the tight confines of the bunker to not only accelerate the character interactions and bonding, but to also heighten tension and create a strong sense of claustrophobia. You don’t realize how tight your quarters are until a large man freaks out and begins to trash the room around you. The script also ties nicely into the Cloverfield world without relying on the previous installment almost at all,  relying instead on its own power of palpable tension and mystery.

The performances here are also great. The film strictly features the three leads save for a brief cameo, some CGI’d creatures and a vocal appearance by Bradley Cooper, so powerful performances were crucial to the success of Cloverfield Lane. With that in mind, allow me to assure you that there are no slouches in this film. Goodman commands the screen as both the physically and mentally imposing Howard, giving everyone a sense of being trapped with no hope for escape. Even when Howard is being kind and genuine, there’s a sense of a ticking time bomb underneath the facade and it’s only a matter of time until he’s set off. Winstead also shines bright as the captured Michelle who refuses to say die. Even in the most dire of circumstances, you can’t help but root for her if only because she refuses to stay down. Winstead also manages to be a dominant presence, an excellent counterpoint to Goodman’s Howard. Gallagher’s Emmett has the smallest role of the film, but maximizes his time on screen as he’s the catalyst for character development and several major plot developments.

The direction from relative unknown Dan Trachtenberg should also be commended. As I stated above, the tension in the film is heightened by the excellent use of the confined space that these people have found themselves in and Trachtenberg uses angles and the claustrophobic feelings to really draw the audience in. He also gets the most of out of his actors, several times driving the story forward without dialogue at all and even using photographs at one point.

If there’s anything to be said to detract from the film, it’s that 10 Cloverfield Lane suffers from being a sequel to Cloverfield. Much of the mystery is taken away when we know that there is no chemical attack and it never really catches hold whether or not Howard knows about the alien invasion of Earth. So, it really became a waiting game of whether or not they would figure out that it was aliens that were the real threat or not. As a smaller criticism, while Lane is deeply rooted in the real world, it’s realism is much the same as its predecessor – they seem to forget about it. In Cloverfield, it was Caplan being impaled on the rebar and the helicopter crash. In Lane, there’s a small bottle of whiskey that is turned into a Molotov cocktail which is astoundingly devastating as well as Winstead’s incredible versatility when it comes to car crashes. While they don’t detract from the movie, it does kind of snap you out of it a little.

It also brings up a very unique, and based on its financial success so far, and profitable approach to franchises. Considering nearly every film is a franchise or quickly turned into one, making the sequel to a found-footage monster flick into a trapped in a bunker mystery was a bold move, but one that seems to be paying off. It also doesn’t just factor into the Cloverfield world, but helps advance the franchise. It’s certainly an interesting new way to view the production of a franchise as the film industry is getting so weighted down by the glut of series flooding the market. This model certainly provides some very interesting new ways to tell a story within a pre-existing universe that won’t exhaust the audience on a series.

Overall, 10 Cloverfield Lane turned out to be a pretty solid film. Carried by outstanding performances, an extremely well written script and some more than competent directing, Lane is both an enjoyable view as well as a solid sequel. While it does suffer some from the name it carries diluting some of the mystery, thus the film losing some of its tension, Lane doesn’t let that stop us from thoroughly enjoying the movie. Taut, tense and thrilling, 10 Cloverfield Lane should definitely be on your ‘Things to See’ list.