10 Cloverfield Lane
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10 Cloverfield Lane

Cloverfield was the surprise hit of 2008; a found-footage tale of a giant monster’s rampage through New York. As sequels go, 10 Cloverfield Lane is about as far from that as you can get: after leaving her fiancée in New York, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is driving as far away as she can get when her car is hit and she wakes up chained to a wall in the basement of Howard (John Goodman).

Turns out the basement is part of a survivalist bunker that he’d had built – with the help of Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who’s also inside – in case of an attack. And now, according to him, that time has come and they’re going to have to stay down there for “one to two years”. Unsurprisingly Michelle is sceptical. What follows is, for the most part, a tightly wound thriller as the confined trio fail to become a happy family – thanks largely to Howard being more than a little creepy. But his story of an “attack” seems to check out: just how bad will things have to get inside before outside seems the smart option? Small in scale but big in tension, this refreshing straightforward film is a gripping thrill-ride – just don’t expect it to be Cloverfield II.

Reviewed by Anthony Morris