Hidden agenda

Rating: 5/10 (10 January 2017)

Cloverfield was a found footage movie of a monster loose in New York city.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a sideways sequel. The ending ties up with the events of Cloverfield in a sense that this is the same universe and what is happening elsewhere in the USA might have an impact in the character's motives.
However this film has more in common with Room or Misery or The disappearance of Alice Creed.
Howard (John Goodman) lives in a bunker and also inside is young handyman Emmet (John Gallagher Jr) and Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) a young woman who we see hurriedly packing up some things and then driving off in her car that collided with a vehicle driven by Howard.
Michelle wakes up on a mattress and chained to a wall. She is confused and frightened. Howard tells her that he saved her life and everyone in the outside world is dead after some kind of attack and the air outside is toxic.
However can Howard be trusted? He has arbitrary rules, he appears volatile, he lacks empathy about Michelle's predicament and sometimes acts more like an abuser.
The film is really a claustrophobic thriller as Michelle and Emmett detect inconsistencies in Howard's story and look to escape, but what sort of world is out there?
An interesting variation of a franchise where they could had just plodded along the found footage alien invasion plot but it will leave sci fi fans unsatisfied, it is not a horror film in the vein of Hostel or Saw and we saw something similar in Room.