I would like to say that first, there are no spoilers in this review. Second, Mary Elizabeth Winstead kicks ass. She is an awesome horror/action movie heroine, and not really one you'd expect from looking at her.
She was in my favorite Final Destination movie (#3) and the remake of The Thing, where she also kicked ass. In 10 Cloverfield Lane, she starts off by leaving her fiancé for reasons that aren't really explained and ends up being run off the road by an unseen vehicle. When she wakes up she is locked in a room with her leg handcuffed to a pipe in typical horror movie fashion. This is a pretty basic beginning, but once John Goodman shows up it's obvious this is not going where you think it is.
Without giving anything away they, along with Emmett (the other guy who is either lucky enough to be in the bunker with them or is just another victim of Goodman but I'm not telling which it is of course) are stuck in the bunker for the better part of the film. It really becomes an engrossing psychological thriller, as you try to figure out if Goodman is just a conspiracy nut or if there really is something outside the bunker to be afraid of. The clues are all there, but they are clues for both possible outcomes and I was never absolutely certain which ending I should expect. Are there aliens or Russians out there waiting to get them, like Goodman insists as he holds them captive and dictates their every move? Or is he making it up to keep Winstead and her buddy Emmett with him?
There has been some complaining about the ending, but I thought it was perfect. It was pretty much what I expected, and I had tried to avoid all spoilers so I wouldn't really know what was going on. I thought it was exciting and scary and well done, and was a logical conclusion to everything else this woman had been through up to that point. Like I always say, it's nice to see a horror movie heroine who doesn't just scream and run around like an idiot. She is scared and unsure but she gets it done. She fights when she needs to and doesn't back down when most people in these kinds of movies would.
As for how this movie links to the first Cloverfield, that's a little hard to explain without spoiling anything. This was enjoyable from beginning to end, and I have to say I have never been more afraid of John Goodman in my life.
I highly recommend this one, and suggest you see it before you know too much about it.
