Redefining the Found-Footage Genre

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2019)

Gritty, dirty and stylistic, it plays on very dark and painful imagery of real-world catastrophe through the lens of forced perspective to build a truly immersive and tense experience. Cleverly juxtaposing scenes of destruction against more hopeful and positive memories through the use of the camera's old recordings, Cloverfield is able to invest its audience into the lives and character of its cast in very short time which puts us firmly on their side, while the exceptional sound design and sparing use of effects make this feel more like a VR experience than a movie.