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Cloverfield first mesmerized people in a quick, surprising trailer which aired before the movie Transformers in July of 2007. The trailer consisted of a lot of screaming, home videos of chaos and the broken head of the Statue of Liberty flying through the city and landing in the middle of a street. After the movie let out, I went home and looked up any Cloverfield information I could find. The movie was kept pretty much a secret, so any information on the internet was usually false. Information on drawings of the monster, movie plots, music, actors; most ideas were made up or staged to give people a small run around. Since J.J. Abrams created the film, many thought that Cloverfield was somehow tied in to tie the TV show Lost, since Abrams also writes for the show.

The lack of information about the movie paid off when Cloverfield finally hit theaters in January of 2008. The movie starts off with a video tape being played. The tape has been copied over so there are skips that occur between a young couple's day out and what happens when a monster suddenly attacks New York City. A party taking place at the time of the attack is suddenly broken up and a small group of college grads make their way through the chaos after the guest of honor at the party gets a phone call from his ex asking for help.

In the beginning you can only hear the roars of the creature and see the damage it is making in its path, but you don't see any full shots until nearly the end. This is not such a bad thing as there is plenty of tension and other little creepy crawlies to keep you in suspense. It seems as though the monster has parasitic creatures which drop off of its body and attack other living creatures. At one point the rescuers and the parasites make contact and the end result of the confrontation is sudden, and gut wrenching.

The rescuers make their way to their destination and we get a glimpse of the monster making its way down the streets. It's a massive, shocking creature, bellowing its arrival as it crushes whatever is in its path. Nobody knows where it came from and what it wants. We are made to think that the creature is subdued when a large amount of bombing in the end. That may not be the case though, JJ Abram loves to add easter eggs and other little subtleties to his work. Many have noticed that at the end of the movie when the survivor says that they are alive and need help, if the plea for help is played backwards they state that the monster is still alive.

There are many speculations as to how the monster appeared, if it is an alien or something from the depths of the ocean. At the very end of the film there may be a clue as to where the Cloverfield monster comes from. What I love about this movie is that you don't know where is came from or what it is, just that there is mass chaos and confusion. It's a great thrill. Monster movies aren't made like this anymore, hopefully there will be more like this in the future.

Learn more about this author, Jen Harley.
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