Claustrophobia, psychological, monsters...

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2016)

Following a car accident, Michelle wakes up chained to a basement wall: it transpires the basement is a fallout bunker belonging to Howard, who saved her from the car crash and, together with Emmett (who helped him build it) is standing by for a stay of a year or more, giving the attack which is going on overhead. But Howard seems a bit intense, so is he telling the truth? Cloverfield was a found footage movie showing an alien assault on New York. 10 Cloverfield Lane is an entirely different kind of film. Staged tightly and claustrophobically more or less within the single setting of the bunker, this is a study of the interactions between three people: John Goodman is Howard, a truly intense performance. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as Michelle, is a victim with fight left in her: in fact, her character has a very strong arc, from someone who always runs away, to someone who learns how to fight for survival. John Gallgher Jr does well as Emmett, a rather thankless role of the third point on the triangle, necessary only for character dynamics between Michelle and Howard.
Not a great deal happens, but it happens very suspensefully. And we learn that not all monsters have tentacles.