Cloverfield kicked ass! Good horror! Realistic, with actual characters and a story. See it.
I mean, this was one of the most realistic horror movies I’ve seen that is unrealistic. That is to say, Psycho is realistic because serial killers actually exist. Giant monsters do not actual exist, so they are by default unrealistic. However, this is the most realisticly-portrayed unrealistic movie I’ve seen in awhile. Think: Blair Witch, but with adults instead of college kids. There’s even a love angle — one that, if you are not a robot, touches you at the very end of the movie. In a bit of a disturbing way.

This also reminded me of Right At Your Door, in the sense that they both had romantic relationships, a society-crushing attack, and “saving my significant other versus saving myself” internal conflict. In both movies, [highlight for spoilers]→ things don’t really turn out as well for people who try to control uncontrollable situations. Only 1 out of the 4 people who comprised the 2 couples from these 2 movies made it out alive, and it was the person least likely to, a woman in a convertable right at ground zero.. So both movies have a subtext to them, one that basically says “it is in your best interest to obey the authorities.”

Anyway, they did a good job on making it scary, and making it a big “WTF”. We had to rewind several times because of the “Whoa” factor. Including slow-motion-ing a few segments to get a closer look at the Cloverfield monster.

Conclusion: Good stuff. SEE THIS!

MOTION SICKNESS: I don’t get motion sickness with screens, and did not even know people vomited due to the “shaky cameras”. It seemed closer to reality to me — brief snapshots where you don’t always know what’s going on. I also never got sick playing DOOM like some people did.

THE VERY LAST SCENE: Yes, it’s true. If you look at the very last scene, you can see [highlight for spoilers]→ an object fall from space into the water next to Coney Island. According to the Cloverfield graphic novel (Japanese manga), the [highlight for spoilers]→ falling object is NOT a meteorite, but a fallen corporate sattelite. This would point to the origin of the monster being more likely a sea monster than a space alien. Which is too bad, because I would have preferred an alien.

OTHER REVIEWS: Ryan‘s review was excellent: Read it here. The site is where I got the spoiler information (so open with caution) is HERE. And I found out about that site via the comments in Ryan’s post. :)

Mood: unmoody
Music: Sabbat – The Original Sin (demo)