Warning: major spoilers ahead. The opening scene of 10 Cloverfield Lane started out with alterations between loud booming sounds cut by seconds of absolute silence, which in my opinion was representative of the entire film. 10 Cloverfield Lane mixed psychological thrills with mystery to create a film that balanced just enough normalcy with horror to keep you on the edge of your seat.
The premise of the film is that the protagonist, Michelle, wakes up in a bunker underground, not knowing where she is or who she was with. For the first portion of the film, the audience is left wondering about the intentions of Howard, one of the main characters who rescued Michelle from a car wreckage and took her to his bunker just before a major chemical attack occurred in the area. Although Howard offers Michelle and the other survivor, Elliot, a place with food, water, television and books, Michelle and Elliot are left wondering if Howard is telling the truth about the chemical attacks and consider the possibility that he has kidnapped them.
That, along with Howard’s dictatorial nature, violent outbursts and the discovery by Michelle and Elliot that he kidnapped and murdered a girl quickly makes him the antagonist of the film. Although this discovery added a layer of horror to the already unsettling plot, it would have been better to keep the audience wondering and questioning if Howard was a friend or a foe for a little bit longer. Producer J.J. Abrams also made good use of the colors of the light; Howard was almost always in cold, blue light in climactic moments, while Michelle by contrast was always in warm, red light during those same moments.
Similarly, I was pleasantly surprised that Michelle was portrayed as intelligent and handy throughout the entire film and that a traditionally “feminine” passion of hers, designing clothes, turned out to be her strength and the reason she survives when she escapes. The blossoming friendship between Elliot and Michelle was also a great for character development, as I was expecting Elliot to be some creepy guy who hits on Michelle and uses the “end of the world” as an excuse to try and get laid, when in reality they open up to each other and have each other’s back in wake of escalating tensions between them and Howard.
They work together on a plan to escape, which is when the plot reaches climax, as Howard confronts them about their secretive and suspicious behavior. Elliot covers for Michelle and explained to Howard that he was creating a weapon so Michelle would respect him in the same way that she respected Howard. Howard then in a quick fluid motion, shockingly shoots Elliot, killing him and then dissolved his body in a vat of acid. This was one of the more brilliant scenes of dialogue in the film, as Elliot cleverly caters to Howard’s sexism, distorted conceptions of family and power hungry, controlling personality to make his story more believable, which ends up being the reason Michelle gets an opportunity to escape. This scene was particularly heartbreaking because Michelle had revealed in an earlier scene to Elliot that her older brother would always take fall for her and “got the worst of it,” which was what Elliot did, and in turn resulted in his demise.
Another memorable exchange of dialogue was during a lighthearted game of charades, where Howard uses the words “baby princess” as synonymous with “woman” when describing Michelle, which shows him infantilizing Michelle’s character and his desire to be be in a paternal role. In that same scene, the tone turns intensely scary and threatening very quickly, as Howard looks directly at the two of them and screams that he “knows what they’re doing” and “can see everything.” Ironically, he was mimicking Santa Claus and when Michelle guessed correctly, the tone eerily shifts back to casual as if nothing happened.
Some of the more horror and gore aspects were when Howard showed Michelle the two pigs he had, which had melted due to the chemical attacks, and when a neighbor of Howard’s, who had been exposed to the chemicals and had half of her face melted off, was begging Michelle to be let into the bunker. The woman then goes into a screaming rage and repeatedly bashes her head into the glass window, where her head starts bleeding and her frontal bone starts showing.
Up until the part where Michelle actually manages to escape the bunker, I really enjoyed the film. However, upon escaping she discovers the air isn’t contaminated and she is only at risk if the chemicals are directly concentrated at her. Then, all of a sudden, an armadillo-like alien comes out of the shadows and starts to chase Michelle, essentially validating Howard’s warnings. The issues I have with this are twofold: there is no explanation of where the aliens came from, they are just sort of introduced without any context, and that Howard, a deceptive and manipulative character, ended up actually being right about the attacks.
There wasn’t really even a need to introduce aliens, a chemical attack by another country or a terrorist organization would have had the same effect on the plot and would have also explained the melted pig and deformed woman, without seeming so ludicrous and outlandish. By then, right amidst Michelle in a scene where she is fighting a large alien aircraft in the sky, I was just waiting for the film to be over. There were so many opportunities for the film to end with a much more dramatic effect, for example when she set the large alien aircraft on fire and fell to the ground, followed by a black screen and silence; that would have been a heroic death where she took out the alien that put her in that bad situation in the bunker in the first place. The film could have even cut off right when she takes her first breath of air, which would have lacked catharsis but would have also left the audience with questions and wondering if the attacks were even real, or if Howard was just a crazy serial killer and kidnapper.
Some other unanswered questions that were left when the film ended were if Howard was the one who intimidated her and crashed into her car, causing her to be in that wreck, which is implied, or if he purposefully crashed into her so he had a convenient reason to take her back to his bunker, or if he was planning on abducting her before but the invasion and attacks just happened at an opportune time for him which he used as an excuse to seem like a hero.
Perhaps the entire film is an allegory for an abusive relationship, as abusers usually convince the victims that they are doing the victims a favor, which Howard did as he said that Michelle should thank him for saving her. Along that same vein, often victims of abuse feel like they can’t escape their abusers and have nowhere to go, and in this film Michelle literally doesn’t have a place to go because of the attacks. The conclusion is somewhat cheesy, as Michelle finds an abandoned car and drives off into the night to help save other people in the area from the alien invasion, but it might be symbolic of the liberation and freedom victims feel once rid of their abusers.
10 Cloverfield Lane raised questions about the dynamics and abusive roles within families and other relationships, as for the majority of the thrill and horror of the film surrounded Howard’s unpredictability and desire to have a family–by any means necessary. One of the most haunting moments of the film was a frame of Howard’s face, half melted off by acid, stabbing a knife towards Michelle, screaming for her to stay with him so they could be a family. If emotional rollercoasters with a side of horror are your thing, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a great watch and will make you feel very alive, as your heart will not stop racing even after you see the credits begin to roll.