Cloverfield (2008)

Director:

Matt Reeves

Writer (WGA):

Drew Goddard (written by)

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Some Thing Has Found Us

Plot:

Revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people.

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Video Camera | Apartment | Explosion | Statue

Awards:

4 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Lizzy Caplan	...	Marlena
Jessica Lucas	...	Lily
T.J. Miller	...	Hud
Michael Stahl-David	...	Rob Hawkins
Mike Vogel	...	Jason Hawkins
Odette Yustman	...	Beth McIntyre
Anjul Nigam	...	Bodega Cashier
Margot Farley	...	Jenn
Theo Rossi	...	Antonio
Brian Klugman	...	Charlie
Kelvin Yu	...	Clark
Liza Lapira	...	Heather
Lili Mirojnick	...	Lei
Ben Feldman	...	Travis
Elena Caruso	...	Party Goer

Also Known As:

1-18-08 (USA) (promotional title)
Cheese (USA) (fake working title)
Clover (USA) (fake working title)
Monstrous (USA) (promotional title)
Slusho (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled J.J. Abrams Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG | UK:15 | Argentina:16 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Ireland:15A | Malaysia:U | Finland:K-13 | Australia:M | Czech Republic:15 | Hong Kong:IIA | USA:PG-13 (certificate #44015) | Taiwan:PG-12 | Germany:12 | Brazil:14 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Sweden:15 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Denmark:15 | New Zealand:M | Japan:PG-12 | France:U (with warning) | South Africa:13V (13LV) | Iceland:14 | Peru:14 | Austria:14

Filming Locations:

Bloomingdale's Department Store, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Bad Robot

Trivia:

Many scenes were shot with the Panasonic HVX200 "prosumer" digital video camera. Visual effects plates were shot primarily with the Thomson Grass Valley Viper Filmstream digital video camera; the effects camera in NYC was the Sony F23 digital video camera.

Goofs:

Plot holes: It would be impossible for any consumer camcorder to survive a 300 foot drop from the monster's mouth.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Rob Hawkins: It's 6:42 AM. Beth's dad's place. He's out of town. And it's already a good day.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Robot Chicken: Especially the Animal Keith Crofford (#4.19)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Grown So Ugly

Tremendous thrills!

Some people have derisively compared this film to The Blair Witch Project because it was all told from the point of view of someone's shaking camera. Unless you have motion sickness, I don't think that's a bad thing. What matters is who's in front of the camera. While The Blair Witch Project featured annoying people screaming at each other, this movie actually made me care about the characters. In fact if it had continued with the romantic drama tone established during the first half hour, I STILL think it would have been worth watching and that's the biggest compliment I can give it.

Of course people will be watching this movie for the visceral pleasure and Colverfield delivers. Many thrilling visual and sound effects wowed me (there were a few times I yelled out in shock at a sudden scare). Any horror film will also benefit from a sense of entrapment and this movie pulls off the seemingly impossible feat of making New York City seem claustrophobic because there was seemingly nowhere to hide from the monster.

What is the monster? Whatever it is clearly is meant to be an allegory for the carnage 9/11 inflicted on New York, much the same way Godzilla was meant to be an allegory for the damage inflicted on Japan by the atom bomb. There are moments seemingly recreating the documentary footage from 9/11, and they give the film verisimilitude. Touching upon real life horror, plus creating characters that we can relate to and care about, and assaulting our senses with incredible sights and sounds leads to entertainment worth watching many times over. Perhaps the 80 minute run time will bother some people, but on the other hand I think that's better than a film wearing out its welcome. Great job J.J. Abrams and company!