Tense

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2018)

'10 Cloverfield Lane' is a tense and enjoyable addition to the Cloverfield franchise. While this film may be set in the same world as the original Cloverfield and contain a few references to the events of the first film, it is ultimately its own movie. Everything from the characters to directing style - even the genre - is different. This was frustrating to a certain extent, as I had the expectation for it to be a follow up to events of the first film, but once you get used to the fact that this is a completely different story to the original film, you are able to enjoy the film for what it is. Having only a small number of cast members (four to be exact), the pressure is put on the actors to pull off a good job, as all the attention is on them. Thankfully, all the three main actors did a superb job in their characters, with John Goodman being the clear standout. He portrays his complex character so well, and until the final moments of the film, you are still trying to figure out whether he is a hero or a villain which I found rather refreshing. The storyline was quite intriguing and in-depth with many surprising plot twists that kept me on the edge-of-my-seat, just like the original film. The ending did seem quite out-of-place when compared to the rest of the narrative, but when looking at the film franchise as a whole, it makes sense and certainly sets us up for another addition the Cloverfield franchise (which is coming out in 2018)!