Fuel the Fear

Review Written By: Gaius Bolling

Release Date: January 18th, 2008

Sometimes too much hype can completely derail a project. Look no further than The Blair Witch Project. When that film made the jump from art houses to multiplexes the reaction was not that of universal praise. The marketing suggested the scariest film ever made but the result was a bit disappointing. I respect what The Blair Witch Project was trying to do but I think it ultimately failed to make a lasting impression. In my opinion, the trailers and other marketing materials, were much more frightening than the film itself.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007 when many moviegoers were seeing sold out showings of Transformers. Many of us were treated to a mysterious trailer that looked like footage from a going away party. Everything seems like it's business as usual, in fact it looked like scenes from what would be a quickly cancelled TV show about 20 somethings. Then things take a dramatic turn and soon the room is shaking, things are exploding, and the statue of liberty's head is thrown down the street. There was not title for the film and all we got was a release date (1-18-08).

Soon after the trailer was viewed by the masses, everyone began trying to find out what movie the trailer was for. After much investigation many people found it under the working title (and what would later be revealed to be the official title) Cloverfield. Pretty soon much speculation was made about what the film could even be. Some stated that it was a Voltron movie. Others thought they were remaking Godzilla again. Pretty soon a viral marketing campaign was started to promote the film and spread awareness. When the official trailer was released in November, it became more clear what the movie would be about but there were still unanswered questions.

So after all the clever marketing, does Cloverfield live up to the hype? I'm happy to report that it does and then some. Some may view Cloverfield as a cheap, entertaining thrill ride but I was more enthralled with what it says about how we all react during a tragedy. The monster is an added gimmick which works but the human need to survive and protect those that we love is what makes Cloverfield much better than it has any right to be.

The film - which is essentially the content of one video tape - begins in April with a cute little scene between lovers Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and Beth (Odette Yustman), who have just spent their first night together and are filming each other in the morning. Things jump ahead to a night in May. Rob is leaving for Japan the next day and this is his going-away party. In attendance are his brother, Jason (Mike Vogel); Jason's girlfriend, Lily (Jessica Lucas); Rob's best friend (and the cameraman), Hud (T.J. Miller); and Hud's crush-from-afar, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan). Things are going well at the party until all hell breaks loose outside. There are explosions. Buildings topple. Projectiles hurtle through the air. In a matter of minutes, New York is in chaos. This time, however, the attacker isn't a terrorist - it's a giant monster. And it appears to be immune to everything the army throws at it.

Some reviews have complained about the first 20 minutes which introduces the principle characters. Some have called it boring and bit pointless but I think it does a lot for the film when all the disaster strikes. You don't truly get to know all of the main players but you learn key things about them that make you care about their survival. Adding to this, the chemistry between all of them is pretty good and I never got the impression that they were acting in a film. It also helps that this segment also has some funny bits of humor because once the terror strikes, the film is a bit of a downer.

The handheld camera is never really a nuisance. For some reason it was for me in the Blair Witch Project but here I think it was a bit more controlled. It's obvious that the handheld technique is used to sell it as a "true life event" and to make you feel like you are there with them. The technique may be obvious but it works very well. It makes for a truly visceral experience and at times watching some of this made me feel very uncomfortable. I've heard people complain about the character filming the events and how it's unrealistic but if coverage of 9/11 has taught us anything, it's that when disaster strikes, people turn their cameras on.

Speaking of 9/11, there is a sense that event that lays a creepy shadow over the film. Some have said that the destruction of New York in this film is opportunistic because it will play on our memories of that particular day but how else could this be done? The destruction is effective and it's not violent for the sake of being violent. However, all the imagery we do see does remind us of that real life destruction. For instance, witness as a smoke cloud rolls toward the citizens of New York after a building collapses. We saw this image all over the news during 9/11 so it becomes a bit alarming when it's sort of replayed here. Realism (considering the circumstances) is another one of Cloverfield's many assets.

I don't want to really talk about individual scenes or the monster because I think it might ruin the experience of seeing it. Just know that there are some truly scary and disturbing scenes in the films. My adrenaline was on fire during certain moments and that is a sure sign that the film is doing its job. As for the monster itself, i will just say that I wasn't disappointed and I'm glad the filmmakers have taken the Jaws approach by not showing it off too much.

The acting is pretty effective. It helps that the film uses unknown actors to portray the main roles. Lizzy Caplan and Mike Vogel have the most items on their resume (Lizzy with Mean Girls and her role on The Class) and (Vogel in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants). All the actors are well suited for their roles and they have an everyday regular person vibe that makes you believe you're watching real people and not actors. This will certainly raise some of their profiles so it will be interesting to see what they do next.

I'm not going to say much more about the film because this is certainly something that needs to be experienced. The film is intense, terrifying and despite the "monstrous" elements it still deals with real emotions and reactions to destruction. January is commonly known to be a month when studios dump films that aren't worthy but Cloverfield was a glowing exception. Hype did not derail this motion picture, in fact, it actually did it some justice.

Trivia:

The first trailer for this movie played before Transformers (2007). It showed a giant explosion in the heart of New York City and the Statue of Liberty's head being thrown down a street. It was shot with a hand-held video recorder. There was no title.
Jason (Mike Vogel) can be seen wearing a Slusho! T-shirt throughout the movie. Slusho! is a drink from J.J. Abrams' show Alias (2001) as well as a codename of the film's, and the shirt is the only time the beverage is acknowledged during the movie, with far more information hinted about it on the Internet.
The film was shot in 34 days, in Los Angeles under the fake title "Slusho" and in New York under the fake title "Cheese". The Ferris wheel scene, the last in sequential order, was filmed on the first day. The scene inside Beth's parents' apartment, the first in sequential order, was filmed on the last day.
The title "Cloverfield"; initially just a codename for the movie, is named for the boulevard in Santa Monica where the Bad Robot offices were located during the making of the film.
The teaser trailer, as was planned, was shot before principal production began with digital cameras.
The film has no music score and music for the end credits do not begin until 1 minute and 30 seconds after the credits start rolling.
Prints were shipped to some theaters under the name "Bertha".
The movie is viewed primarily from the point of view of Hud, the character who uses the camera the most. H.U.D. is short for Heads-Up Display, a method for overlaying information onto a view of one's surroundings such as Timestamps on video footage.
During the first weekend of the release, many theaters posted signs warning guests that the hand held camera movements may cause motion sickness.
Lizzy Caplan (Marlena) did not know what she was auditioning for. She thought it was a romantic movie until her second audition, where she read a scene from Alias (2001). It wasn't until after she was offered the role that she found out it was a monster movie, and the actors weren't allowed to read the script until after they signed on.
The decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty in the street is inspired by the poster for John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1981), which depicts the head of the Statue of Liberty lying in the middle of the street.
Many scenes were shot with the Panasonic HVX200 "prosumer" digital video camera. Visual effects plates were shot primarily with the Thomson Grass Valley Viper Filmstream digital video camera; the effects camera in NYC was the Sony F23 digital video camera.
In the teaser trailer, the voice yelling "I saw it! It's alive! It's huge!" is that of Director Matt Reeves.
The voice in the mysterious radio broadcast that plays after the end credits is director Matt Reeves.
One of the original ideas for a title for the movie was "Greyshot," both a reference to the hand-held style of filming and the name of the bridge in Central Park where Rob and Beth take refuge.
The voice yelling "Oh my God!" repeatedly when the head of the Statue of Liberty lands on the street is producer Bryan Burk.
The opening party scenes were filmed without music, and the guests in the background were silently pretending to talk to one another. All the music was added in post-production.
The film begins on April 27 and ends on May 23 at the exact same time: 6.42 AM.
Images from King Kong (1933), The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), and Them! (1954) are hidden within the film. Each image is seen extremely briefly, for only a single frame, during a camera edit. The "Them!" picture is shown at 00.24.06, the "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" picture is shown at 00.45.27, and the "King Kong" picture is shown at 1.06.55. A brief clip of Rob and Beth at a train station is seen with the "King Kong" image at 1.06.51.
The head of the Statue of Liberty is shown about 50% larger than actual size. CG supervisor David Vickery said in an interview that many people imagined the head being much bigger than it actually is, and that the size was increased due to complaints that the head looked too small in the trailer.

The rats used in the tunnel scene were specially-trained and colored with a dark, charcoal-like substance to give them the appearance of wild, dirty tunnel rats. The rats in the final shot were completely computer-generated.
J.J. Abrams has used the number 47 extensively on past projects. In Alias (2001) it played great importance as a page on Rambaldi's manuscript, and as a recurring pointer to important motifs. It should come as no surprise that "Cloverfield" is the designation to the case of the images found on Area US-447. Also, in the scenes where they're taking the stairs up to the top of the skyscrapers to save Beth, one of the floor numbers filmed is the 47th.
One of the promotional websites, Jamieandteddy.com (password "jllovesth"), shows videologs (vlogs) made by the title couple about their relationship (which turns sour). Jamie Lascano is only seen at the party unceremoniously unconscious on the couch, and Teddy Hanssen is nowhere to be found (although on 1-18-08.com, he is now identified as "missing"). The actors who play either of the two are not confirmed. Though it has been speculated that Jamie is played by Blake Lively, this is incorrect.
The crossfire sequence was shot in one night on the Warner Brothers New York Street lot in Burbank. The extras playing soldiers fired real blanks from their weapons for the first couple of takes until 10:00 pm, when noise ordinances forced them to use quiet flash bulb alternatives.
Some footage in the film was shot by the actors.
Eric Leven -- the visual effects supervisor -- refers to the monster as "Clover".
According to Neville Page, creature designer -- the monster is a baby in a new environment -- "spooked" and looking for its mother.
According to Annie Pomeranz - visual effects producer - puppets were used in the scene involving the "parasites" inside the tunnel but the scene turned out to be more interactive than originally thought and CGI animation was required. However, Matt Reeves - the director - states that the scenes with the puppets were too "goofy".
In the beginning of the movie, Beth, played by Odette Yustman, talks about how she could see the footage Rob was taking on the internet. Yustman also starred in a movie called Reckless Behavior: Caught on Tape (2007) (TV), in which she plays a teacher whose career is ruined when a video of her winds up on the internet.
All the main characters (and Jamie) have MySpace pages. The producers made these pages to advertise on MySpace. All the characters last logged into them on January 16, 2008. (1-18-08), the release date of the film.

Hud was originally going to survive, but producer J.J. Abrams suggested having him getting eaten by the monster, allowing the audience to vicariously experience this. The scene was then planned as having Hud getting eaten instantly after turning around, but it was decided that the audience deserved a good look at the monster, which resulted in the longer shot with the monster leaning down to inspect Hud before biting and killing him.

According to Director Matt Reeves in the DVD documentary, the last shot of the film, when Rob and Beth are on Coney Island, was the very first shoot of principal photography, while the very first scene in Beth's dad's apartment was the very last shoot of principal photography.

At the end of the movie when they are filming themselves on the ferris wheel and the camera pans out to show the water, you can see the satellite that is responsible for waking the monster coming down to earth in the upper right hand corner of the shot.

Cloverfield opened in 3,411 theaters on January 18, 2008 and grossed a total of $16,930,000 on its opening day in the United States and Canada. It made $40,058,229 on its opening weekend, making it the most successful January release to date. Worldwide, it has grossed $170,602,318, making it the first movie in 2008 to gross over $100 million

Review: Cloverfield (2008)