It's no mean feat – keeping an entire movie secret from the world in 2016. But that's exactly what producer JJ Abrams did before unleashing the trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane just two months ago. Although vague facts were known about the existence of the film, Abrams and his co-conspirators went to great lengths to ensure the details remained a mystery. This secrecy has turned into an unspoken agreement even among early viewers of the film, released in the US last week and now in the UK, who have entered into the spirit of things by refusing to talk about the plot.
In which case, any review must keep up the economy of detail. So I'll share only what has been made clear by the simple marketing around the film; a 'spiritual' successor to Abrams' 2008 shaky-cam monster movie Cloverfield, it's the story of Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a young woman who wakes up in an underground bomb shelter where her apparent saviour Howard (John Goodman) brought her just before an apocalyptic event. Before long it becomes clear that they're joined by another mysterious man, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr), and Michelle is left to work out who she can trust, and what's really behind the heavily-padlocked blast doors at the top of the shelter. Something monstrous exists; what Michelle can't be sure of is which side of the door it's on.
To say any more would be cheating. What I can reveal is that 10 Cloverfield Lane is as tense, twisting and surprising as you could possibly hope for from such a setup. The three leads are electric, particularly Winstead as the heroine trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and Goodman who remains brilliantly, un-guessably complex right to the very end. The changes of pace and direction keep coming throughout, and by the time the credits roll, the audience has been richly rewarded for their investment in a truly compelling story.
What perhaps makes the film so special however is the lack of preconceptions among its audience. In an age where trailers are often accused of being edited 'highlights reels' of the full movie, here the truth couldn't be further away. I think the audience's complicity in this demonstrates that as a culture, we don't just want to be entertained: we also love a bit of mystery, wonder and awe. When a film truly delivers these things, we're bowled over with delight; it's a good argument for doing away with movie trailers altogether...
The film – and even that basic, spoiler-free setup – also poses some thoughtful questions. What would any of us do if we found ourselves in Michelle's situation, and what – as she explores in one poignant moment – would we regret if we did? We often hear about the surprising regrets of the dying; in waking up in this living nightmare Michelle is confronted with the things she wished she'd done before the nature of life apparently changed forever. So like all good apocalyptic cinema (a genre in which it resides regardless of whether the apocalypse is real or invented), the film not only restates the idea that the life we know is fragile and will ultimately expire, but also forces us to ask what we should be doing differently in the light of that reality.
I was absolutely hooked by 10 Cloverfield Lane from virtually the first to the very last moment (and make sure you're concentrating when that arrives). I also left committed to keeping all its secrets; I highly recommend that you see it before they inevitably begin to leak out. The film is a rare treat that proves itself entirely worthy of all the silence, and the hype. My only sadness is that I'll never again be able to see it for the first time.
Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. You can follow him on Twitter: @martinsaunders
