“Do you guys know what it is? Out there? Do you know what that thing is?”
“If they know they ain’t telling me. Whatever it is, it’s winning.”
I. Intro
Today is the 10-year anniversary of the release of Cloverfield, and so it felt appropriate to watch it again today, for what will be my 10th time. I was too young to see it in theaters, and thus missed out on the original hype surrounding it. Hype was generated not only by the underground marketing campaign, but also by the fact that trailers for it did not even include its name for the first several months, only it’s release date: 1-18-08. Even more news was made following its first theater showings, as theaters began having to warn moviegoers about the film after the shaky-camera cinematography made several vomit. The mystery that shrouded Cloverfield’s real life release was perfectly designed to compliment the sense of mystery central to the film’s themes.
Despite missing the release, I still entered Cloverfield with a sense of mystery. When I was 14, I picked up the DVD out of the bargain bin at Blockbuster and bought it for $2. I did this entirely because I was into disaster movies at the time and was starting to get into horror, and the cover looked cool. I watched the movie at home without any idea at all what it was about, exactly how it is best viewed. 84 minutes later, I was stunned. My heart was racing as fast as my mind was. It captured my imagination completely. Over the years, I watched it over and over again. I showed it to two of my best friends and to two different dates (yes, really), in four separate showings. It sparked my original interest in found footage horror, a subgenre of movies I adore so much that I’ve now seen more than 50 of them. Some of those who know me understand how significant of an effect this film has had on me and on my understanding of both film in general and the genre of horror.
For that reason, I thought I would type out a very, very long explanation of how and why: the backstory, the story itself, and the story’s meaning. I can’t promise you this is short reading, but I can promise you this is interesting reading. This is what I see in Cloverfield.
[Special thanks to the Cloverfield Wiki, the Cloverfield Clues blog, and IMDb’s info on the movie for help in my research on this.]
Hey this is awesome. When I watched Cloverfield I didn’t know wtf was going on but I enjoyed it anyway as found footage, and now knowing all this just kinda ices the cake.
Wow. I didn’t know there was an arg.
Cloverfield: 10 Years Later
Published
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