WARNING: May Induce Post Traumatic Stress

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2008)

What brought me to "Cloverfield," was not that it was an over-hyped, star-studded extravaganza, with a compelling storyline. Quite the contrary, "Cloverfield" is none of those things. What brought me to "Cloverfield" was the most compelling TV trailer I'd seen since "A Fistful of Dollars," over 40 years ago.
While watching "Cloverfield," I thought, "While always clever, the first 20 minutes are almost tedious; and what follows is not particularly suspenseful or scary." I needn't share these thoughts with my wife, as she hated "Cloverfield," without my help. THEN I had the first movie-induced nightmare I'd experienced in 50 years. I now understand the real power of "Cloverfield". Part "Blair Witch," part "Spielberg's War of the Worlds," part "X-files," part generic teen movie, "Cloverfield" is also a whole lot more. "Cloverfield" is the closest replication of a nightmare I've ever experienced. Time and spatial elements are cleverly distorted. Sound effects elements are muffled. While the gore is convincingly explicit, it's not exploited, and much of the violence is suggested. The emotions I experienced must be a lot like those radio listeners felt while listening to the infamous Mercury Theater "War of the Worlds" broadcast. It was the spatial anomalies, however, that disturbed me the most. While the creature was impossibly enormous, it was also unbelievably flexible, apparently capable of extending itself several times its actual size. Aren't fears, at first, suggested, then "in your face," the stuff of nightmares? Aren't darkness and confusion, "the stuff," as well? "Cloverfield" has all of these. Further, the monster's progeny, spider-like creatures the size of hogs, create the more immediate threat, and the fear of "What's moving on the ceiling of my bedroom?" Kudos to the entire cast for making such "ordinary" characters memorable. Even more kudos to the production team of "Cloverfield" for doing what I always thought was impossible, i.e. the perfect recreation of the nightmare experience.
I caution anyone who either directly experienced or lost loved ones on 911 that this movie could induce unbearable post traumatic stress. Certainly, "Cloverfield" and its resultant nightmare will haunt me for many years to come. I can state, without a doubt, "Cloverfield" is the most provocative science fiction film since "The Matrix" and may well be the best science fiction / fantasy film ever made. It's also likely to be one of the ten best genre films of the decade. I give "Cloverfield" a "10".