Monsters Return, Yes!

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2008)

Let's start out with this. This is an 8 out of 10 film. And yes, I will see it again. It's really great to see the standard monster come back to horror. Outside of The Host we have missed the creation of a really good monster movie and this is it. Like The Host, somewhat, the concentration of the film is from ordinary people, who are a few in millions being attacked. It does not take the stance of "the authorities" and follow where the monster came from and how it can be killed. See Godzilla. But the key to the film is the camera. As has been talked about much about Cloverfield, the Blair Witch perspective does much to lend a sense of claustrophobia and hence extreme tenseness to watch the film. Blair Witch & Cloverfield really concentrate your attention to the fact that you do not have peripheral vision. The camera acts as your eyes. Your normal eye sight allows you to have peripheral vision. Now the camera, in Blair Witch & Cloverfield, having replaced your eyes allows you to see like your real eyes but with the peripheral sight taken away. Your overall vision reduced, makes you very tense and uncertain of even what's right next to you. That's what you feel in Cloverfield. Get some horse blinders and walk around for a day and see how uncertain you feel. That's the visceral response that you get. The camera is greatly used also in the reveal of the monster. You never really get a good look, much like the first Alien film. That also heightens the tension. The dialogue is just enough to keep the pace going. Without the dialogue, the urgency in the voice, the pace of the film would be slower. Just the action alone would make it more difficult to maintain the frantic pace needed. Of course my only knocks on the film are the traditional. Women crying and emotional. Do all women cry and get emotional in the face of danger? Naw. See 28 Days. The sappy parts do slow down the film even if it's just a little bit. Looking into your lover's eyes can wait. Death is near and it could be a painful, ugly one. Get out! Why don't people run like hell when they can obviously see that what is coming is bigger and badder than they could ever comprehend? People run!! This is something terrible. Go See Cloverfield!