On Thursday evening, moviegoers who sat down to watch Michael Bay’s 13 Hours were treated with a rather unexpected trailer for a film that no one really saw coming. The film in question, directed by Dan Trachtenberg (Portal: No Escape) and code-named Valencia, has been in the works for a while now starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr. and that’s pretty much all anyone knew about it. Now Paramount has released the official trailer, which you can view above. Could this be the long-awaited sequel to the 2008 found-footage monster flick Cloverfield? Well, sort of.
Produced by J.J. Abrams and his company Bad Robot Productions, Abrams told Collider:
“The idea came up a long time ago during production. We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield. The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible.”
Well, job well done on holding back the title but what exactly does “blood relative of Cloverfield” mean exactly?
Not much can be gleaned from the first look of 10 Cloverfield Lane in how it exactly relates to the original film (perhaps it’s the aftermath of a monster attack?) but every moment delivers on suspense. In the trailer, we see Goodman, Winstead and Gallagher in a survivalist bunker doing their best to pass an unclear amount of time. Repetitive shots of board games and the preparation of food immediately give you the sense that there’s not much to do down there. It becomes apparent that Goodman is the one in control, and the others don’t appear to be there willingly. Is he holding them captive or did he save them from a worse fate outside of the bunker?
And can we talk about setting it to “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James & The Shondells? You cannot ask for a better backing track for a doomsday bunker end-of-the-world captivity movie out there. Punctuating the trailer perfectly with with “children behave,” “running just as fast as we can,” and of course “I think we’re alone now.” Perfectly ominous in every way.
Normally when the first trailer for a film drops we often have months, if not years, to wait and see what it’s all about. Thankfully, having kept so much of the film under wraps for so long we need only wait till the beginning of March 2016 when it’s released. Surprise things like this happen so rarely in this day and age that we already love 10 Cloverfield Lane for catching us off guard.
What are your thoughts on 10 Cloverfield Lane? Can the powerhouse cast make up for the lack of T.J. Miller’s aptly named “Hud” from the first film? Let us know in the comments below!
