January movies aren’t typically known for being of the highest quality, but it can be a terrific month for horror. For instance, the fantastic newly-released 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. But the fact remains that, for the most part, January is the month when studios dump the projects they’ve put a lot of money into but have little hope for. Then there’s the movie that was the diametric opposite of those two factors. There was one movie that got a nice marketing push from its studio and wasn’t a big-budget investment. And that small investment? It paid off in spades.
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The movie we’re referring to is Cloverfield, which featured a perfectly mysterious marketing campaign that peaked the audience’s interest, planting questions in their minds they just had to have answers for. Yet, while Cloverfield is solid, its sequel was even better.
What Made Cloverfield Such a Movie of the Moment & What Made 10 Cloverfield Lane Even Better?
The thing that made Cloverfield such an intriguing mystery of a movie, and what helped keep its budget low, is the fact that it’s a found footage film. It was the exact same thing that made The Blair Witch Project take off back in 1999. It’s just that this time, instead of a witch we never see, it’s a kaiju we catch glimpses of.
The year after Cloverfield, Avatar kicked off a resurgence in 3D films, and the most successful of them (e.g. Alice in Wonderland) came out shortly after James Cameron’s movie. This was what happened with found footage movies after Paranormal Activity brought it back in 2007. Cloverfield benefitted from that renewed interest to a considerable degree. It was a case of a bunch of exciting factors coalescing at the exact right point in history: renewed interest in the filming technique, a desire to see something new (even back then, movies showed too much in the trailers, so it was intriguing to see one that showed nothing), and the rising recognizability of the name J. J. Abrams.
Speaking of Abrams, this was a substantial steppingstone in his career. After producing this, he directed Star Trek the next year, which of course then led to the first and third installments of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. But it wasn’t just him, as this was the big-screen breakthrough for Matt Reeves. He had directed The Pallbearer in 1996, but it’s telling that after this he got the gig helming the excellent remake Let Me In which then led to his Planet of the Apes and DC gigs. This was also the first movie penned by Drew Goddard, who made his directorial debut several years later with The Cabin in the Woods. Furthermore, there were a few stars who blew up after Cloverfield (T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan, and Odette Annable).
In short, Cloverfield was an important movie. On top of jumpstarting some impressive careers, it showed just how impactful a clever marketing campaign could be. After all, Cloverfield netted over $170 million against a $25 million investment. But 10 Cloverfield Lane is still better.
A found footage style crafts an intimate focus, but it can feel manufactured (which it is). But scripts like 10 Cloverfield Lane, which put three very different characters into a single locale, actually is intimate as can be. Part of that, of course, is the single location, but just as important is the lengths the script goes to flesh out all three of the players. And thanks to the sterling performances by John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr., and, especially, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, all its emotional beats hit as they should.
Not to mention, like its predecessor, 10 Cloverfield Lane had some heavy hitter talent involved, one of whom was very early in his career. First, Damien Chazelle co-wrote the movie in between his direction gigs on Whiplash and La La Land. Second, Abrams returns as producer. And third, this was Dan Trachtenberg’s directorial debut. If that name rings a bell, it’s because you know him as the man who turned Predator into a genuinely successful franchise via Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and Predator: Badlands.
Which is your favorite Cloverfield movie? Let us know in the comments.
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