If Monsters Really Attacked Manhattan by MLynnC

WARNING: This essay contains spoilers for the film Cloverfield.

Forty-six million dollars is the box office record for a January movie opening. The highly anticipated and unconventionally filmed monster movie, Cloverfield, achieved this record the weekend of January 18, 2008, despite or possibly because of the reputation it achieved for making viewers nauseous through the use of a handheld camera. No one from my group of friends felt ill while watching Cloverfield even though it was dark and jumpy. Despite the unlikely event that a giant monster might actually attack Manhattan, the film Cloverfield was created in such a way that it feels like a real event. The realness has a powerful effect on the audience and the movie’s scenes linger in your mind. In short, Cloverfield comes across like a real event because of the limited information given in the film, the director’s presentation of the film, the familiarity of home movies to the audience, the lack of a score or soundtrack, and the restrictive nature of the camera work through one of the main character’s handheld camera.

No one in our group researched the movie prior to seeing it opening weekend, and I think that was the best way to see it. Rarely does a move challenge me to ask questions and really care about finding the answers. Cloverfield made my fellow moviegoers and I pose many twisted questions to each other later that evening over beers and burgers as we tried to figure out the story.

Had we researched the film we would have found several fake websites that were designed to give back-story. These websites were made to look like real companies, advertisements, or video letters from one lover to another. None of them explicitly explain the movie. Instead, they force you to piece together their significance, creating the sense that you are investigating a real story.

Bloggers speculated what the monster was, where it came from, what the movie title might mean, and many other details. The URL 1-18-08.com eventually served as the film’s official website even though it provided few indications regarding the movie’s plot or characters. The fake corporate websites for Tagruato and Slusho (tagruato.jp and slusho.jp) along with the fake activist website Tidowave (tidowave.com) provide the most hints to answer the larger picture of why and how of the monster attacks. These sites are cleverly designed to look legitimate and at the same time give fictional answers to the movie’s plot. The websites jamieandteddy.com (password: jllovesth) and blog.myspace.com/robbyhawkins served as supplements to side-stories within the movie. These side-story websites help provide links between the other corporate and activist websites. Each of these websites fueled the discussion boards and entertained bloggers with ideas of back-story and plot. Just like a real event, the public was left only clues to piece together for answers.

“What’s going on?” popped into my mind when the film opened with the color test bars you see when TV stations are off the air. I actually thought the movie was messed up. Then basic white text on a black background read that the following US Department of Defense file was a recovered digital SD card from site “US-447,” what used to be called “Central Park” (Reeves, 2008). “How realistic,” I thought as I settled in for an unconventional movie experience. This plain introduction sets up the audience to watch a home movie of the attack and implied destruction of Central Park. The director’s unconventional opening to the film was intriguing.

The film is unedited in the traditional Hollywood sense. It contains long shots, jumpy camera moves, people confused about how to work the camera, and times when the camera is forgotten about while running or fighting. Glimpses of Rob and Beth’s Great Day, a month earlier, are dispersed throughout the film because the going away party and attack were filmed over old footage. This unsettling and unprofessional camerawork is expected in a home movie, and it is familiar to us through “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and YouTube, lending to the realness of the film.

As the film shifts from the character setup in the “normal” home movie scenes of Rob and Beth’s Great Day together and Rob’s going away party, as seen through Rob’s camera, to what seems to be earthquakes and explosions you settle in for a good monster scare. However, the cameraman, Hud, does not get a good look at the monster for quite a while. After all he is not in the right place to see the monster from his vantage point. What is seen through the camera is an enormous high-rise collapse reminiscent of 9/11. This is immediately followed by the terrifying hallmark of thick dust clouds raging through the streets of Manhattan, enveloping tall buildings, and swallowing up chaotic bystanders. The heart wrenching and helpless memories of New Yorkers evacuating Manhattan during 9/11 set the stage for the first goal of Cloverfield’s main characters to get out of the city. I believe the writers chose to evoke memories of 9/11 to relate the invasion of the monster to the death, destruction, confusion, and fear American’s experienced during the first few hours after the first plane struck the World Trade Center. The director’s choice to use images American’s associate with total destruction and mass murder lends to the authenticity of the character’s fear and confusion, and to the audience’s belief that what they are watching could be a real home movie.

As with a home movie, the director did to not “add” sound to the film through a soundtrack or score. The sounds of the monster’s roars and explosions of glass and steel usually announce its approach. In a few scenes, the sound of military gunfire, tanks, bombs, and fighter jets indicated its proximity. Since the movie did not use ambient music or a score there were no clues that something dramatic was about to happen or misleading clues to toy with your anxieties. As in real life, the only sounds heard during the movie were those the camera picked up from the environment. For example, there is an eerie scene where the main characters are traveling through the city by following the dark subway tunnels. They discover all the subway rats running in the same direction away from something behind the group. They attempt to be quiet to see or hear what has scared the rats. One of the main characters hears the squeaks and chattering of the smaller, parasitic monsters before the monsters are close enough for the camera to pick up their sound. The camera’s night vision function does not pick up the image of the monsters until they are just a few feet away on the ceiling. Just as you would expect, the sounds closer to the camera are easier to hear and some things are just not picked up at all or are distorted in a way that you cannot distinguish what exactly they are. Again, this common frustration with imperfect sound in real home movies reinforces the real feel of the film.

The frustration with imperfect sound accompanies the frustration with imperfect camera work. By choosing to only show the events through a first- person point of view, the movie never strays away from the realness and the frustration you would have with your own home movie imperfections. For instance, the large scale of the monster and the fact that the monster is walking between high-rises means that Hud gets very few good vantage points to really see the monster. If Hud is running or being attacked, the camera is left to swing wildly or be dragged in a way that you are not sure what is happening to him or anyone else. The fight scenes are especially confusing and frustrating since you cannot see what is happening to everyone in the group from a third person view. This lack of an omniscient viewpoint is effective in heightening the suspense since you do not know what might come from behind the camera or if Hud has missed looking at something important. This makes the experience seem real since the director never leaves first- person point of view.

In fact, what we see is almost entirely what Hud is interested in seeing for himself—like his love interest, Marlena. The audience’s close connection to Hud’s experience creates empathy for Hud and his friends. There is a particularly suspenseful scene where Hud is trying to make it back across the roof of Beth’s broken apartment building, which is resting against a standing building. I found myself leaning forward in my chair, trying to help Hud cross the sloping roof quicker to avoid the approaching monster. This was pure suspension of disbelief! Then towards the end of the movie, when the monster is staring Hud down as he stands over him, you are left to panic with Hud about the inevitable. When the monster chews on Hud, you feel like you are there with him in its mouth and that this is it: the end. However, when Hud’s body and the camera drop to the ground you have renewed hope that Rob and Beth might still make it out of this tragedy alive. Their final comments to the camera, as they hide under a Central Park bridge in Central Park while the US military’s bombs the area, leaves you with the sad realization that they have no hope of surviving. The intensity of these scenes is achieved because the first- person view from Hud’s experience makes you feel like you are living through this catastrophic event with the group of friends.

The director successfully portrayed the film as a recovered SD card from a catastrophic event. My friends and I were left thinking that this could have been one of many recorded views of that night’s events. As seen on the Brooklyn Bridge, other people filmed the events and their footage must be out there somewhere. Just like in real life, there are always multiple perspectives of an event. The producer has discussed making a sequel to Cloverfield using someone else’s recovered camera footage from that same night. The many questions regarding what actually happened and the back-story add to the mystique of the film and drive lively discussions. This encouraged me to find more information by reading through discussion threads to find the websites listed in the introduction. The realism of Cloverfield draws you in and lingers in your mind.


Bibliography

Reeves, M. (Director). (2008). Cloverfield [Motion picture]. United States: Bad Robot.

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My grade for this analysis essay was 395 points out of 400. :)