"10 Cloverfield Lane" is a great "spiritual successor" to 2008's "Cloverfield".

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2016)

When is a movie a "spiritual successor"? No, it doesn't have anything to do with ghosts procreating. A movie that is a spiritual successor or spiritual sequel to its predecessor is a movie that doesn't follow the same story line as the original, but has enough in common with the original's setting, themes or style that the new movie can be seen as "in the spirit of" the film to which it's being compared. Another way to think about it is that the two movies exist in the same cinematic universe. They often also have the same production team. The closest example that comes to mind is the pair of "300" movies. The 2014 film "300: Rise of an Empire" had some overlap with the 2006 film "300" in time period, setting, themes and style, but had its own story almost completely apart from the story told in the first film.
Similarly, the 2016 film "10 Cloverfield Lane" (PG-13, 1:43) is a distant relative of 2008's found-footage science fiction monster movie "Cloverfield". (Call them second cousins twice removed.) "10 Cloverfield Lane" is based on a screenplay entitled "The Cellar" which Paramount purchased in 2012 and gave to J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions to develop it further. Bad Robot had produced the original "Cloverfield" and Abrams has said that "The Cellar" had "so many elements that felt like the DNA of this story were of the same place that 'Cloverfield' was born out of." Abrams adds that his company produced this film as a "blood relative" of "Cloverfield". Unfortunately, using the name of the original in the title of its very different successor is a bit of a spoiler, but the setting (mostly underground), the themes (wondering what's really happening when you can't see it) and style (traditional camera-work rather than "found footage"), allows Movie Fans to still enjoy this film, whether they saw (and liked) "Cloverfield" or not.
Speaking of avoiding spoilers, doing so prevents me from going as far into the plot of this movie as I usually do in my reviews, but here's the basic set-up: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is Michelle, a young Louisiana woman who leaves her fiancé, Ben (Bradley Cooper). As she's driving down an isolated 2-lane highway, she gets into a car accident that leaves her injured and unconscious. She wakes up in an underground bunker in the care of a survivalist who identifies himself as Howard (John Goodman). He tells Michelle that he saved her life – not just from dying of her injuries – but from an "attack" that has left everyone above ground either dead or dying. He says he's not sure if the attack was perpetrated by the Russians, the Martians, or(?), but he's adamant that leaving the bunker would mean certain death.
Michelle is skeptical, to say the least, even after she meets the bunker's other resident, Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.) who backs up everything Howard has said. Emmett is a contractor who helped Norman build his doomsday bunker over a period of years and then fought to be let in when, lo and behold, Armageddon actually happened! Howard is a Navy veteran who seems paranoid and occasionally exhibits other odd and even volatile behaviors, but his end-of-the-world man cave does have all the comforts of home and it does appear that Howard has saved their lives, so Michelle and Emmett settle in, become friends and even learn to get along with Howard for a while. As with all good thrillers, surprises, suspense and a struggle for survival await some or all of the main characters.
"10 Cloverfield Lane" is a great spiritual successor that builds on the legacy of "Cloverfield" with an entirely different framework. The unusual circumstances that I related above regarding how this movie came to be provide us with an original story that effectively taps into the original's fear and sense of foreboding. The plot allows for a departure from the overused found-footage format and gives us a uniquely creepy and claustrophobic vibe. The performances also come across as very authentic. Early in the movie, we feel Michelle's disorientation and fear. Then, we are put somewhat at ease by Emmett's presence and his good-guy friendliness. Throughout the film, much like those two characters do, we alternate between feeling good about Norman and being suspicious of him. Is he paranoid because he's crazy? Is he crazy because he's paranoid? Or is he simply a well-meaning but neurotic loner who has been thrown off his game by unexpectedly living out an apocalyptic version of "Three's Company"? And how does the 2008 film relate to all this? All good questions. On its way to giving us good answers, "10 Cloverfield Lane" keeps us off balance, but will ultimately satisfy most Movie Fans, whether they saw (and liked) "Cloverfield" or not. "A-"