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Ridley Coote

Cloverfield (2008) Dir: Matt Reeves

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This Matt Reeves directed sci-fi horror is arguably one of the most famous examples of found footage cinema, and often considered among its best. It's one that, time and time again, gets mentioned and referenced in modern horror lists and essays. However, it was also one that I was only able to watch for the first time recently.


The visuals, while pretty dated by today's standards, weren't too bad. Reeves managed to limit the explicitly bad CGI with camera movement and clever framing or filmwork. I loved how the pacing picked up dramatically, once the film got into the true horror part of the story, and slowed only a little here and there, allowing for a fast-paced and action-packed story.


I love how the film pivoted suddenly, going from its semi-disguised, seemingly irrelevant exposition, straight into the claustrophobic, intense, devastating horror, which combines a mixture of sudden, explosive action with suspenseful and surprisingly emotive storytelling.


The film focuses in on a handful of people caught in the middle of the chaos, with the most prevalent of which being played by Michael Stahl-David, who, while a bit repetitive in his dialogue, was a decent enough character, whose goal pushed the narrative forward.


In regards to the other key characters, T.J. Miller provided some light relief with his quick-wit, while Lizzy Caplan and Jessica Lucas, though perhaps a little underutilised, provided some solid acting, and felt pretty believable, for the most part.


Overall, this had a lot more story to it than I expected, but all the science fiction action I was hoping for. It was a lot of fun, and a great sub-90 minute action horror. I figured this would be at least relatively good, but I still enjoyed it more than I thought I would.



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