"Cloverfield"

For my film this week, I wanted to choose a horror movie with a twist.  And, no, not an M. Night Shyamalan-esque ‘throw the plot out the window and tell the viewer “gotcha”’ twist.  I wanted to view, analyze, and write about a movie that stands out in a multi-faceted way.  I therefore watched the 2008 thriller “Cloverfield”, directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams, and written by Drew Goddard.  The movie was hyped up for its mystery, primarily stemming from the fact that Abrams and company revealed as little as possible regarding the film’s plot throughout production and pre-release.  All the audience knew was to sit down, strap in, and prepare to be taken through a ‘modern’ horror film via first-person-point-of-view. 

The film opens with a few clips recorded on a hand-held camera before introducing some characters who are awaiting the protagonist, Rob, at his surprise going away party in a New York City apartment.  Rob’s best friend, Hud, was tasked with filming the party, but when there is an ‘earthquake’, all the party-goers step outside to investigate.  While standing outside, there is an explosion downtown, and the head of the Statue of Liberty screeches through the street.  Utter chaos begins ensuing in the streets, and the group of friends run for their lives from the source of the explosion.  At this point, no one has any idea what is going on.   **I think this is the most important aspect of Cloverfield.  The audience had no idea what the ‘monster’ was going into the film, but more importantly, it was only around 45 minutes into the movie that we got to see a very blurry and fleeting image of it. 

After initially trying to flee the city, ending in the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge and death of several characters, Rob, Marlena, Hud, and Lily regroup and strategize how to escape.  However, upon receiving a distress call, Rob decides to attempt a rescue of his love interest, Beth.  They slowly lose numbers, and, through some surprisingly graphic scenes (including one horrifically scarring and purely terrifying scene in a pitch black subway tunnel), are ultimately brought down to the main two, Rob and Beth.  They constantly are gasping about how scared they are.  They are also constantly expressing their fear of the unknown and keep on asking “what the hell is that thing??”

In his essay, “The Uncanny”, Sigmund Freud explains that, “…the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar” and goes on to write that it is tempting “to conclude that what is ‘uncanny’ is frightening people precisely because it is not known and familiar.” 

Uncanny fear results from the inability or limited ability to fully wrap ones mind around what is happening—to comprehend it and make sense of it.  The English definition of uncanny is perhaps the most relevant, ‘uncomfortable, uneasy, gloomy, dismal, ghastly; (of a house) haunted; (of a man) a repulsive fellow’.  The Arabic definition is relevant to Cloverfield: demonic, gruesome.  However, all seem to agree that is represents an eerie, weird, arousing fear.  Cloverfield is so mysterious not simply in the aspect of the ‘unknown’, but also through its over-stimulation of the audience.  This practice ensures that the viewer is so disoriented that his fear is escalated to the next level—uncanny.  The dual nature of uncanniness is that it arouses both recognition and fear/uncertainty, but the fear is because something is skewed, distorted, or abominated in what normally would be familiar.  Not necessarily overtly distorted (at first), but an evolving distortion or abomination that transforms the subject, the viewer, and the experience as a whole. 

I really enjoyed watching Cloverfield (albeit sometimes between my fingers crossed) particularly looking for Freud’s uncanny element.  Throughout the movie, I believe that there was a different sense of fear than seen before.  What I find most intriguing is that the audience got to share this fear with the main characters as we both get to experience it first-hand.  In horror, we begin to doubt our ability to distinguish between the real and the unreal—the predictable and the unpredictable.  It is precisely this ‘off-balance’ condition that arouses pure fear.  As much as I hate horror movies, I feel like after this unit of class and being forced to watch several different ones now, I actually understand the genre and see its value more clearly.  Fear draws us in—not because we are attracted to what frightens us but because we can only (try to) conquer fear by opening ourselves to it, seeking to understand it, seeing to master it.  In this way we are complicitly giving fear power over us—but hopefully only as a means of entertainment.