Utterly nerve-jangling when it's not busy trying to shoe-horn in a link to Cloverfield

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2016)

Apart from the rather cryptic title, there seems to be little connecting Dan Trachteberg's feature debut 10 Cloverfield Lane with J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions' relatively well-received shaky-cam monster movie Cloverfield from eight years ago. Starting life as a claustrophobic thriller penned by Josh Campbell and Matthew Stuecken called The Cellar, Abrams claims to have noticed thematic similarities between the two during pre-production and decided to work the story into the Cloverfield universe, offering the odd wink or nod here and there along with the occasional hint at the state of the outside world following the arrival of the bandy-limbed kaiju and its pesky offspring.
Any fans of the first film looking for more of the same will be sorely disappointed, but surely captivated nonetheless at the gripping events that unfold here. The film begins almost dialogue- free with our heroine Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packing up and leaving her apologetic partner (voiced by Bradley Cooper) for some unexplained yet irrelevant reason. After she is hit by what seems to be another vehicle whilst driving in the darkness, she wakes up chained to a wall and hooked up to a I.V. drip in a dingy cellar. She soon meets her captor in the hulking, intimidating Howard (John Goodman), who slides her some food and expects a thank you in return.
Eventually her shackles are loosened and she is informed that she was rescued when the country, or possibly the world, was hit by an attack from an unknown source. Howard lists everything from al-Qaeda to alien invaders as the possible culprit. Yet while everyone was laughing at the ex-Navy man's conspiracy theories and paranoia, he was preparing for such an event by building an all-singing, all- dancing bunker equipped with electricity, an air filtration system, movies, board games, puzzles, and all manners of activities designed to pass the time during a long stretch waiting for the air outside to clear. The bunker has another resident, the upbeat Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who confirms Howard's claims of the apocalypse but shares Michelle's concern for his unpredictable behaviour.
There's plenty of fun to be had with trying to decipher Howard's intentions and figuring out just what the hell has happened outside the extremely secure door. The presence of two dead pigs visible from the window seems to concur with Howard's speculations of a gas attack, but what is with the frequent rumblings heard overhead? You'll also be chewing your fingers down the bone, as Trachtenberg forges an almost suffocating atmosphere from what is a pretty standard cinematic setting, with Goodman delivering the finest performance of his career. He is clearly unstable with a social ineptitude, but there is sympathy to be had when we learn of his tragic backstory. Clues to his character are given with an extreme subtlety, with an uncomfortable game of charades in particular offering suggestions that there may be a whole lot more going on than first imagined.
Winstead too, is very good, and its a wonder why her career has hit a bit of a slump of late. Michelle isn't just a pretty damsel in distress, but a strong, intelligent young woman with a crafty side of her own. With one eye permanently on the door and the other locked in suspicion at her apparent saviour, her desire to see what happened for herself offers many moments of nerve-jangling tension. Where 10 Cloverfield Lane doesn't really convince is when it's working that eye-catching word into its title. For anyone unaware of the Matt Reeves' 2008 film or those so completely caught up in the main story that it has just slipped their mind, the climax may be too much of a shift in tone. While its likely to cause the movie to linger in your mind for slightly longer than it would have if it had remained a stand-alone drama, it seems rather pointlessly shoe- horned in. But don't let that put you off, as for 90 minutes at least, 10 Cloverfield Lane is outstanding performances from a talented cast and riveting drama that occasionally weaves into horror territory.