"Cloverfield" takes an old-fashioned premise and marries it to a once novel storytelling approach to create one of the best and most effective horror films in years. A found-footage monster movie, the film blends disaster movie conventions, character-based drama, and post-September 11 fears into an intense, gripping, and scary experience.

Allowing the audience to get to know its protagonists, the film takes its time setting up mundane situations before introducing the creature that will spend the duration of the film wreaking havoc on Manhattan. When the film's horror elements kick in, Matt Reeves and company wisely follow the lead of "Jaws" and "Alien" by slowly revealing the thing that is creating so much terror.

The story is one of simple…

I have an unhealthy love for monster movies. I'll watch them all if I get the chance. The problem is that most of the films in this genre are smothered by the tropes they are governed by, thus often lacking creativity and become dreadfully boring. Well, Cloverfield just completely messed up that whole theory.

Creativity is such a powerful thing. The dangers of doing a found footage film are always clear and present, but what they managed to pull off here surprised me greatly and I love the film for it. It is tense, scary and adrenaline fuelled. It features some of the best practical effects and clever uses of CGI I have seen in quite some time. Oh, and…

"My name is Robert Hawkins. It's 6:42 AM on Saturday, May 23rd. Approximately seven hours ago, some... thing attacked the city."
-Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David)

Film 29 of 35 of The Found Footage/Mockumentary Project.

Seeing this a good four years or so ago, before I had made it my mission to watch every horror film under the sun, this film scared my shitless. It stayed with me for days afterward, and earned a special place in my heart. Seeing it again last night, it wasn’t quite as scary (what? it wasn’t…er…), but was still just as great.

The cast, comprised largely of unknown faces, are really rather good. Rob reminds me of a younger Sam Rockwell, Lily (Jessica Lucas) reminded…

I remember the first time I saw Cloverfield at the cinema along with the feeling of being absolutely blown away by its originality (back in 2008, the found footage genre hadn't saturated the market as it has today), the sheer thrill of the ride and the power and gut wrenching intensity of its soundtrack and visuals. It was one of those films that once I had a copy of it on DVD, I watched it over and over again, back to back, until my eyes started to bleed (figuratively!). So how has the last 4 and a half years treated it. This viewing was the first in a number of years so would it still as good as memory served…

I'm glad I waited plenty of time between viewings on this one, because I wiped so many of my bad memories away that came from my initial watch at the multiplex some 5 years ago. It was one of the top ten worst experiences with an audience that I've ever had to sit through, with most of the people in the sold-out audience completely distracting my focus on the movie. I ultimately came out of my first viewing of Cloverfield feeling a little underwhelmed, but I think it was wrong to judge it based on a viewing that wasn't even 50% given attention to.

Watching this movie now, I discovered that some of the things I originally found annoying actually…

"Cloverfield" takes an old-fashioned premise and marries it to a once novel storytelling approach to create one of the best and most effective horror films in years. A found-footage monster movie, the film blends disaster movie conventions, character-based drama, and post-September 11 fears into an intense, gripping, and scary experience.

Allowing the audience to get to know its protagonists, the film takes its time setting up mundane situations before introducing the creature that will spend the duration of the film wreaking havoc on Manhattan. When the film's horror elements kick in, Matt Reeves and company wisely follow the lead of "Jaws" and "Alien" by slowly revealing the thing that is creating so much terror.

The story is one of simple…

I'm glad I waited plenty of time between viewings on this one, because I wiped so many of my bad memories away that came from my initial watch at the multiplex some 5 years ago. It was one of the top ten worst experiences with an audience that I've ever had to sit through, with most of the people in the sold-out audience completely distracting my focus on the movie. I ultimately came out of my first viewing of Cloverfield feeling a little underwhelmed, but I think it was wrong to judge it based on a viewing that wasn't even 50% given attention to.

Watching this movie now, I discovered that some of the things I originally found annoying actually…

I have this thing where I hate CGI for the most part because it looks so bad most of the time. I know I'm definitely not alone on this. The extensive use of CGI right now I feel is a bit like stop-motion was in the 30s - glaringly fake to anyone with two eyes - and that makes Cloverfield something like a contemporary King Kong in terms of the viewing experience.

Many of the CGI shots in the film are fine, because they are fleeting, but a great many more are not, because they linger. They linger, and it looks fake and awful. I'm not against using CGI, but in a found footage film it's really, really out of…