I Don't Know Why It's Happening.....

Rating: Null/10 (12 February 2013)

"I don't know why it's happening". In hindsight this quote is a potent embodiment of Cloverfield, its raw emotive core which sees its central characters be driven by their emotions through thick and thin in a night which forever changes the course of history.
Starting off in an ordinary fashion we witness the trials and tribulations of Robert as he prepares to bid farewell to friends, family and his true love Beth. Although this sequence is nothing spectacular and could easily fit into a sappy rom – com, it has an underlying sense of dread and lingering at the events to come. Seeing this love drama unfold forms a humanity which makes them relatable to us which was exactly the move Cloverfield had to make before hitting us forthright with the traumatic horror that ensues.
The major player here is the cinematography, its point of view vision which we're confined to so that we become immersed into the devastating chaos that the survivors finds themselves in. Being restricted to a point of view vision means there's no escape for us, we're not in control of what we see forcing us into the horrific psychological ride which consumes every character a la The Blair Witch Project. Cloverfield defiantly would not have fully realised its havoc - filled atmosphere and tension if the cinematography had expanded.
Cloverfield's cinematography is only a percentage of the immense psychological roller-coaster we venture on. Shock deaths, immediate changes to situations and honest accounts of individual feelings, Cloverfield does not shy away from raw emotion. In watching Robert having to tell his Mother of his younger brother's death is a culmination, his whole emotional barrier crumbling down at the stark realisation of his world being devastatingly altered hits us simultaneously.
Credit also has to be given to Cloverfield's familiar urban New York setting, the hustle and bustle of modern life suddenly hauled to a standstill where everything the characters come across causes us to feel overwhelmed with senses of profound astonishment. Particularly when the surviving members of the group randomly come across a white horse and cart causally making its own way across now deserted streets, only in such a stunning journey of pandemonium and brutal violence would witnessing a white horse and cart become a disturbing absurdity. This along with the mystery surrounding the invading monster only serves up more horrifyingly astonished scenes.
Running up to only the seventy minute mark, Cloverfield uses its short time frame perfectly with terrifying tension and jittering suspense playing with us psychologically constantly making us wonder, why is it all happening?