If your reading this... your fly is down...

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2008)

Umm. Cloverfield is scary and I got nightmares from it. No seriously, this movie freaked me out. I thought I was going sit in my comfy theater seat and have a good laugh as I watched an overblown version of the Blair Witch Project. I was wrong so wrong.
The fear this movie plays with is the fear of not knowing anything during a catastrophic situation. Something bad is happening and people are dying. You know there is a monster, you know that it is huge, but you don't know where it came from or why its attacking. Most monster/alien movies are told from the military or a scientific point of view and experts come up with way to defeat the beast. Cloverfield is about being on the ground level of a horrible event. It's about people running for their lives from things that they have know time to study or understand. There also parts that will be very reminiscent of September, 11 footage, which also plays into the formula of fear. As if the giant unknown monster wasn't enough there are some more nasty surprises in store.
Sure there's a love story involved. Also, in classic horror movie style, the main characters embark on a mission that places them in even greater personal danger than they are already in, but that's all par for the course. The frantic camera angles will make you kind of ill, but it was less annoying than the Bourne Ultimatum.
This was a great movie, the premise worked and exceed my expectations. This was what the American version of Godzilla should have been. Eat that Broderick! Unlike the Blair Witch, I would go see the is movie again and own it proudly. Will there be a sequel? While this movie can stand on its own, but I can see how they could "f" it up with a sequel. So in the meantime enjoy!