Cloverfield.

I'm yet to get out of the dizzy feeling I got after seeing Cloverfield. Basically for two reasons. The first being that its been shot on a hand-held camera. Secondly, what a movie!

To say that J.J.Abrams and Matt Reeves make an awesome movie-making couple just doesn't say it. I loved the movie they had made a couple of years ago, The Pallbearer. This is contrast at it highest point. It's like Laurel and Hardy decided to make movies, and it was oh so good.

Yes, Cloverfield is a monster movie. But, unlike the monster movies which have been made more recently, this one works. It's from the point of view a few 20-something's living in New York on the night of a farewell party. It's Blair Witch style. But better. It's Godzilla, but more terryfying. It's fear, its pain, its horror, its loud, its everything. All packaged into an hour and fifteen minutes of a roller coaster ride.


It is a look into the monster attack on Manhattan on 22nd-23rd May, 2007, recorded by an individual on a hand-held camera. It was later found in Central Park. The name of the movie is basically the name of the sighting. Read : Multiple sightings of case designated Cloverfield.

What I enjoyed most was the hype created before its release. No one had a clue what it would be like. Whether the monster was Godzilla, some dragon, etc etc. I recognized no one in the cast except Jessica Lucas, whom I had seen on Life As We Know It and The L word. So, it was even more of a surprise for me. The casting is perfect, mind you. I haven't seen a bunch of 20-something's running for their lives more horrifically in my life. You can feel the terror. It's like its sitting there right beside you.


There is no background music. Its real time sound. Man, is it loud. Man, is it freaky. There's just something about the fact that there's a 400 foot monster roaming around somehwhere near you that freaks anyone out. And that isn't all. Wait till you find out that its dropping little many-legged-thingies making sounds like 'ayayayayaya' which could tear you limb from limb. Not just that. If you happen to get bitten by those little thingies, guess what happens.. Na, I wont give that one away.

Behind all the horror and all the havoc of this 'monster', their lies a very well pronounced story. Something that most films lack these days. A bunch of people trying to save a loved one. It ain't no tear-jerker, but its bound to make you care for the characters. That, added with "Dude, I really think we shouldn't be here", and stuff that happens so fast that you'll go,'What the Hell was that!?"makes Cloverfield one of the best creature feature's you'll ever watch. Just listen to the havoc when the severed head of the Statue of Liberty falls to the streets. You'll know what fear is. Cloverfield, like Spielberg's War of the Worlds, totally immerses you in the crisis of the situation with no room for you to think.


Cloverfield is short, exhilarating, sad, scary, all at the same time. Sure it leaves certain questions unanswered. But, that is really what its all about. Even the closing credits were scary because of the background music, the only piece of composed music in the length of the picture. I was hooked on to this movie, from the time the thump hit and I saw that red robot running around the bushes. Then came the writing, Bad Robot Pictures. And the movie began..

9/10 for acting. 9/10 for story. 9/10 for direction. Straight 10 for the sound. DO NOT miss the musical piece in the closing credits. And I cannot get enough of the dizzy camerawork!
YOU DID SEE THE THING THAT FELL FROM THE SKY INTO THE OCEAN BEFORE THE LAST CONY ISLAND CLIP, RIGHT??