Horror via Uncle Bernie's camcorder

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2008)

In CLOVERFIELD there are no scientists in lab coats trying to comprehend and destroy the beast. Our protagonists are a group of confused, terrified, hip, twenty-somethings. They don't know what is hitting them. One of these panicked yups is armed with a video camera. He's taken it upon himself to document everything that happens as he and his buddies venture back into the monster's path to rescue our hero's girlfriend, who is trapped in one of the many monster-ravished buildings.
Like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, CLOVERFIELD is presented to us via hand-held consumer video camera. Very often, our vision is not steady. It's shaky, very often it spurts. Despite news articles about CLOVERFIELD's audience-members becoming dizzy while subjected to all the big shaky screen camera-work, I found the shaky-cam gimmick very restrained, paying more attention to the monster and the frightened humans in it's path, rather than saying "Ohhh, lookie at the cool camera angles!". It wasn't so much like BLAIR WITCH, it was more like LADY IN THE LAKE, the 40's noir film shown entirely from the point of view of the protagonist, a private eye.