Written by Logan J. Fowler and Justin Matchick
Release Date: March 11th, 2016
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher, Jr.
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Pre-Trailer Thoughts: While J.J. Abrams was off making a little movie called Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we had no idea he was also part of a “sort of” sequel to the monster movie Cloverfield which came out in 2008. Trailers popped up for the movie only about a month or so ago, surprising everyone. Will the movie itself be a surprise? -LJF
Pre-Trailer Thoughts: Cloverfield was one of the first viral campaigns I remember getting actively involved in back in 2007, and this supposed follow-up is coming through with an equally mysterious ad campaign. I say “supposed” because unsurprisingly J.J. Abrams and the film’s director and writers are all being extremely dodgy when it comes to answering how exactly 10 Cloverfield Lane will tie into the first film, if it even ties into it at all. Abrams has seemed to hint that there might not be any connection between either film aside from the titles, but he has outright lied about the details of movies he’s produced or directed before. As a huge fan of Cloverfield, I am definitely anticipating this. – JTM
Rate the Trailer: 4 out of 5. There’s not much going on here, but that’s not a bad thing. We don’t know if there’s an actual monster like in the first movie, but it seems to be possible that there’s a some sort of disturbing factor at play, and that may be John Goodman’s character. In any case, secrecy is the name of the game here, and I applaud the trailer for not spilling the beans. That’s how you get people to come see your movie.-LJF
Rate the Trailer: 5 out of 5. It’s very clear that any connection to Cloverfield will be tenuous at best, but that really doesn’t matter when the rest of the trailer looks so good. This trailer gives us a lot more clues as to the type of film this will be as opposed to the secrecy in Cloverfield‘s first trailer from 2007, but it still keeps enough hidden from view to leave us questioning what’s going on in almost every frame. I thought I was over “creepy version of popular song” being used so often in trailers, but the gradual slowing down of “I Think We’re Alone Now” is just too damn effective for me to hate it. It perfectly builds the suspense with each new scene revealing more and more reasons that Mary Elizabeth Winstead has to be paranoid about being kept in John Goodman’s fallout shelter. Does it give away too quickly that Winstead will escape from Goodman’s character? Probably. But the number one question I’ve been asking since I first saw this has been “what the hell is outside of that door?” – JTM
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? Rent. I don’t think I’m going to have time to see this flick in theaters but I definitely think it’s going to be a top rental choice upon release on home video. Curiosity is stewing here and hopefully social media doesn’t ruin it for me beforehand. -LJF
Theater, Rent, Undecided, No Thanks? Theater. It’s rare these days for a movie like this to be kept a secret for so long, but from the moment the trailer went online it instantly jumped to the top of my must-see list this Spring. Even if the connections to Cloverfield were all a red herring and J.J. Abrams was telling the truth, I will still want to go out and see this for myself. – JTM
10 Cloverfield Lane opens its doors March 11th, 2016
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