10, CLOVERFIELD LANE : Monday 4th April 2016.

I finally got around to seeing '10, CLOVERFIELD LANE' earlier this week after procrastinating for a long while about seeing it . . . and I'm pleased I did see it, because it is worth it! This Sci-Fi psychological thriller is Directed by Dan Trachtenberg in his Directing debut, and Produced by J.J.Abrams and is described by him as being the spiritual successor to 2008's found footage 'Cloverfield' which made US$171M off its US$25M budget, was critically well received, and was also Produced by J.J.  This latest film was released in early March Stateside and has so far grossed US$85M off its US$15M budget, and has also has received critical praise.

The film opens with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packing up her belongings and leaving home with her engagement ring left on the side table and a tear in her eye. As she drives through the night her mobile phone rings and it is Ben (voiced by Bradley Cooper) her boyfriend/fiance pleading with her to come home and not to over react because they had an argument. She answers the phone but doesn't speak, just allowing Ben to say a few words before hanging up on him. A few moments later, and Ben calls back, and as she reaches down to the phone, her car receives a direct hit from a passing vehicle sending her car tumbling end over end through a crash barrier and down a ravine, landing upside down.

She wakes sometime later on a mattress on the floor in an enclosed room behind a bolted door bandaged, and chained to a railing. She panics not knowing what has happened, when, why or how she got there.  Through the door enters big burly Howard (John Goodman) calling for her to rest up, take the medication he is offering and to give him thanks for saving her life and pulling her from the wreckage of her vehicle.  She has no memory of this.  She demands that he allows her to call her parents who will be worried sick, that her boyfriend will be out looking for her, and that she should get proper medical aid at a hospital. Howard then tells her that its is useless - no one is looking, there are no hospitals, and that she is in an underground bunker - safe from the world above that no longer exists as she remembers it - the result of an attack, but of which kind he is uncertain - nuclear, chemical or alien, or maybe all three.

Shortly afterwards we are introduced to Emmett (John Gallagher Jnr.) who is also holed up in the bunker but is there voluntarily as he originally helped Howard build the thing, and when the attack came - which he witnessed - he forced his way inside. Inside the bunker therefore are the three of them and we learn that Howard is an ex-Navy man, with conspiracy theories aplenty but had been planning and building his Doomsday Bunker for years knowing that such a day would come . . . and it did, very recently, and they could be down there for two years until the air above clears and becomes breathable once more. Michele doesn't know if she can believe him as his story seems too fantastical.

For a while some relative normalcy is resumed below ground with enough supplies, running water, power and the comforts of home to keep them occupied for a long while. Michelle however, hatches an escape plan which sees her get so close only to be confronted with a heavily skin infected woman hammering at the outer door of the bunker demanding to be let in. Michelle dare not let her in given what she is witnessing as Howard pleads with her not to go outside. Could he be telling the truth after all?

As time progresses a few truths are uncovered by Michelle and Emmett that lead them to hatch a second escape plan, but this is partially uncovered by Howard, who takes his anger out on Emmett who concocts a cover up story. Needless to say is doesn't end well for Emmett involving a gun shot at point blank range and a tub of perchloric acid. This is the catalyst for Michelle to take things into her own hands and act quickly now or face Howard's unhinged state.

Ultimately Michelle escapes after turning the tables, and the perchloric acid on Howard which results in the bunker exploding in a ball of flame and the old fella buying the farm. Outside using a makeshift biohazard suit and gas mask that she has fashioned together from a shower curtain and plastic drinks containers, Michelle is free and notices a flock of birds flying overhead - proof then that the atmosphere cannot be polluted. As she stands on the roof of Howard's car looking over the corn fields she spies in the near distance the awful truth about the outside world, and the claims that Howard was making. Needless to say it doesn't end there as Michelle is confronted with the truth up close & personal, and needs to think and act quickly if she is to survive.

This film is well crafted and the tension delivered by the three actors is at times palpable. There are a few jump scares too along the way which help maintain the attention and build the suspense, and the story twists and turns and it's not until the end that we discover if Howard was really telling the truth. You'll just have to catch it for yourself to find out . . . I don't think you'll be disappointed.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-