The sequel to JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield trades in the “found footage” angle and damn-near everything else.
You know, you have to admire the degree to which JJ Abrams was able to keep the sequel to Cloverfield a secret. Fans of the 2008 found footage monster flick he produced have been begging for an update ever since, yet not a one of us had heard so much as a peep about it. Chalk up to the fact that Abrams was busy directing a Star Wars, but in an era where it’s next to impossible to keep even a cameo under wraps, it’s impressive that he was able to sneak an entire movie past us.
But as it stands, the trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane dropped alongside Michael Bay’s surprisingly-decent Benghazi actioner, 13 Hours, over the weekend, giving audiences a look at what Abrams has actually been calling less a sequel to Cloverfield and more a “blood relative.”
From the looks of it, even that woefully ambiguous label might be a bit of a stretch. Gone is the found footage gimmick (and with it, TJ Miller’s labored breathing), the skyscraper-sized aliens, or anything resembling Cloverfield, really, and in return is John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead starring in what can be best described as “Misery 2: Electric Boogaloo.”
After a car accident, a young woman comes to in an underground cellar, where most of the action takes place. She fears she has been abducted by a survivalist, who tells her he saved her life and that a chemical attack has left the outside world uninhabitable. Uncertain what to believe, she decides she must escape, whatever dangers she may face outside.
If the end of the trailer is any indication, I’m guessing that at least one of those dangers comes in the form of a city-destroying mecha-alien.
10 Cloverfield Lane hits theaters on March 11th.
