10 Cloverfield Lane

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Dan Trachtenberg/Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr.

It is always a treat when a plot doesn't immediately reveal secrets but slowly teases them out; keeping the audience on tenterhooks. It is even better when a story seemingly reaches some kind of resolution, only to shift into a higher gear; revealing a larger problem the protagonist must confront. 10 Cloverfield Lane, the smart and thrilling new film by first-feature director Dan Trachtenberg, does just that. Just when the heroine, Michelle (wonderfully played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) thinks she's overcome one terrifying ordeal, a more frightening problem presents itself. Trachtenberg's film, which bears only a titular resemblance to the 2009 film produced by J.J. Abrams, feels like two halves of two good films spliced together to form one really good one. His film is a mix of several genres, all of which form a seamless, effective narrative.

The film doesn't dawdle as the story's pace carries us quickly along. Michelle has just broken up with her boyfriend and has left their home behind. While speeding away, she finds her car has been violently forced off the road. Upon awakening, she finds one knee in a brace and herself chained to a wall in what looks like a basement. She also finds herself in her underwear and hooked up to an IV while her belongings are in sight but out of reach. Using the IV stand, she is able to collect her possessions, including some matches, which she uses to light a fire, which she thrusts into the ventilation duct in hopes of drawing attention from someone on the outside. Hearing the sound of heavy footsteps, the door to her locked room opens jarringly to reveal her captor; a rotund man named Howard (an exceptionally creepy John Goodman) who calmly informs her that he saved her from the wreckage that was her car. Frightened and unsure of Howard's intentions, Michelle begs for her own life. She also asks for her freedom while promising not to inform the authorities about her abductor. What Howard explains to Michelle is particularly strange, as he insists that something catastrophic has occurred outside; a nuclear attack that has rendered the outdoors irradiated and uninhabitable. He also tells her she is safe inside a survivalist bunker; a refuge of his own design built specifically for the predicament in which they find themselves.

The next day, Michelle finds she is allowed to leave the room and upon doing so, she meets another occupant; a youngish man approximately her age named Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who wears one arm in a sling. She asks if he too was kidnapped but he insists his presence is strictly voluntary; as he begged Howard to allow him entrance into the bunker. He also mentions having done work for Howard in the past.

As Howard introduces them to the larger living area of the self-contained bunker, questions about his motives dog Michelle and Emmett (as well as the audience). Is Howard on the up and up; has a nuclear exchange with the Russians really come about or has an alien presence he refers to as "martians" arrived for colonization? Michelle naturally remains suspicious and is horrified to hear Howard tell Emmett that an excursion outdoors won't be possible for one to two years with the supposed, widespread radiation. Her suspicions about Howard's claims are further fed by the rumbling sounds she hears emanating beyond the bunker.

Though odd, Howard seems reasonably stable until a dinner conversation between Michelle and Emmett prompts a violent outburst. During his angry tirade, Michelle manages to steal his keys to the outer doors and later, during a tense exchange between she and Howard, she manages to temporarily trap him inside her bedroom while she hurries to unlock the outer doors. A terrific, nail-biting scene where Michelle desperately tries to remove the various locks to the outer doors with Howard in hot pursuit is particularly thrilling. When she shuts the inner door behind her, Howard begs her not to open the outer door. But when she looks through the window, she doesn't see carnage and a devastated landscape but sunshine and cornstalks swaying in the breeze; though moments later, a woman approaches the glass. As she pounds desperately on the window, demanding to be allowed inside, Michelle notices facial injuries, as if the woman had been exposed to radiation. Horrified by the woman's appearance and her violent, angry pleas, she returns inside, satisfied that Howard's claims have been corroborated.

At this point, the story becomes deliciously complicated. Not only must Michelle and Emmett contend with a violent, paranoid psychotic but with a world that may no longer exist as they knew it. The idea of characters being held prisoner by a madman and nuclear fallout makes a multiple-crisis plot irresistibly fun. But the screenwriters cleverly dole out more surprises and mysteries as the story unfolds. Again, we're left with more questions about what might actually be happening in the outside world and what other motives Howard may have for keeping Michelle and Emmett imprisoned.

The tension between Howard and Emmett and Michelle comes to a head when he discovers the two have been secretly designing an environmental suit from a shower curtain and plastic soda bottles. A shocking development makes it necessary for Michelle to plot an escape, which eventually propels the story from the horror genre to something conspicuously sci-fi. The surprise awaiting her (and the audience) is unexpected.

To reveal more about the story would be criminal, for much of its dark charms involve the element of surprise.

A chunk of praise for Trachtenberg's terrific film can be awarded to John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who bring their brilliant best to their respective roles. One may hope the role of Michelle is a breakthrough career move for Winstead, who has yet to crack the hard nut of stardom. She is perfectly cast for the part of a smart, resourceful, and tough woman; one who deals with every setback and harrowing development with pluck and grit. Goodman, ever the pro, is deeply creepy as Howard.

Trachtenberg, in his directorial feature debut, shows an old hand's talent for staging action. His camera work is taut, economical and to the point but he crafts suspense and horror from a story whose genre leanings are never fixed.

10 Cloverfield Lane is nice little pastry for Mid-March. One can only hope it finds an audience before super-hero films begin to trickle into movie houses. An imaginative, well-conceived flick deserves as much screen-time as Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will undoubtedly receive. If that $250 million juggernaut can deliver a worthwhile cinematic experience, we'll know it soon. We already know what Dan Trachtenberg can do with a meager $5 million budget and a talented cast. Imagine what he could do with a Jupiter-sized budget.