10 Cloverfield Lane, the 2016 installment in the Cloverfield franchise, is a brilliant and suspenseful sci-fi horror film available on Prime Video. It swaps the large-scale monster chaos of its predecessor for a claustrophobic, psychological thriller that is arguably even more terrifying.
The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle, a young woman who, after a fight with her fiancé, flees her life, only to be run off the road. She awakens to find herself chained in a concrete room, her wounds tended. Her “rescuer” is Howard, played with chilling perfection by John Goodman.
Howard explains that he saved her, bringing her to his fully-stocked underground bunker just as a massive attack occurred. He claims the air outside is now toxic, poisoned by a chemical or perhaps even an alien attack, and that they are safe as long as they stay inside.
The film’s suspense is built on this ambiguity. Is Howard a paranoid but correct survivalist who has saved her life? Or is he a disturbed kidnapper using a global catastrophe as a lie to keep her prisoner? The arrival of a third person, a local man who seemingly fought his way into the bunker, only complicates the mystery.
Michelle’s desperate attempts to learn the truth, combined with the suffocating atmosphere of the bunker and Howard’s volatile temper, create an unbearable tension. 10 Cloverfield Lane is a masterful thriller that will have you questioning everything until its shocking final act.
