The Cloverfield Monster
I really enjoyed the secrecy surrounding the build up to the release of Cloverfield earlier this year. I'm wracking my brains to think of any other film in recent years that managed to keep its monster so secret. There's not been that many big Hollywood monster films in the last decade, the only two comparable ones I can think of are the King King and Godzilla remakes. I recall seeing images of the new CGI Kong before hand and Godzilla gave us a tease of a foot and and eye before its release. But in the run up to the release of Cloverfield, there was nothing!
In fact, Googling now for the Cloverfield monster doesn't furnish any images from the film itself, but there are images of the Hasbro toy monster. There are also a few pre-release images of the monster that turned out to be fakes (more here). One can't but help wonder if they were purposefully released by the production company to keep people of the scent of the real one.
I was really stoked at the time and went to see it at the cinema with Monster Kid. The excitement of the build up to seeing the monster was immense, with nothing to really judge it on, my imagination was doing a good job of imagining what to expect. With little more than glimpses through out the film, it was hard to build a full picture of what it looked like, I was a little disappointed with the monster, but I really liked the lolling way it moved and it's unworldly walk.
At the time I commented that the creature reminded me of one of the land striders in the 80s puppet fantasy film The Dark Crystal. I hadn't seen it since I was a child, but I recalled the creature's strange gait and movement. As I wanted to do a belated piece on Cloverfield's creature, I did a quick look around today to find a photo of the land strider, and was struck by the similarities. Ok, so it's not like they could be mistaken for brothers or anything, but if you look at the side by side comaparison below, you'll see how I made the connection. I remember the strider's having quite a strange walk as well, but not quite as strange as the Cloverfield monster's one!
The other thing that was a real let down with the Cloverfield monster was the fact it didn't feel like a sea creature, if indeed it came from the sea and not space. I would have liked a more crab like, crustacean jointed sort of body. Its face was also a let down. You don't get many great views of its face, but looking at the toy's, it looks like a rabid bat. There was a monster video cover from the 80s with a similar look to it, but the title eludes me. Something that looked like it could have come from the depths of the ocean would have been smashing. As it stands it looks more alien than anything. Still, the more I think back to the film, the more I appreciate the actual monster. The parasites that fell of the creature at leasted looked like they'd come from the sea, unlike the actual creature itself.
Cloverfield was unusal for me, for days afterwards I couldn't get it out of my head, scenes from the film really unsettled and impressed me at the same time. At the end of it all, they kept the monster pretty mysterious to the end. That with the 9/11 inspired moments of public panic and exploding buildings made it really resonate. The shroud of mystery around the creature really helped to that end, and with talk of a sequel, I can see there being a lot more good stuff to come.
On a lighter note, I thought I'd finish with one of the videos that appeared in the run up to the film, claiming to reveal the monster from the trailer. The first time I watched, the mock serious tone of the video really drew me in, and frankly set me up nicely for the ending. IF you haven't seen it already, I won't spoil it, but needless to say, first time I saw it, I laughed really hard.
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