"As of Friday, kindness and generosity are antiquated customs."

Rating: 7/10 (30 October 2018)

Geez, I hate when this happens. The picture starts out as a perfectly intense psychological thriller and then turns into....sci-fi? I think another reviewer had it right when he stated that the movie could have ended when Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) first made it out of the bunker and tested the air for breathability. Not sure if that would have worked too well if it was still contaminated, but one step at a time. Instead we get a look at an alien space contraption and another one of those 'Alien' inspired monsters, but this one with a bulbous pulsing head with fangs. I wish someone would come up with a creative new look for an outer space monster. Up until then, I thought the writing held up well with enough twists and turns to make you wonder what was going on with Howard and his paranoid fantasies. The description that Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) had of Howard being a 'black belt in conspiracy theory' was a pretty good one. I would like to have come up with that one myself. As it is, once Michelle made it back to the outside world I felt let down considering all that went before. I didn't think much of 2008's "Cloverfield", and when the movie was over, I thought even less of this one.