Post-Viewing: Why 10 Cloverfield Lane is a masterclass in creating suspense and tension

10 Cloverfield Lane has recently been released; it has planted itself into the attentions of cinema goers in a fairly abrupt manner and has since received a very strong critical reception. What’s interesting about the film is its place in the field of suspense. With a 12A rating here in the UK, the film is accessible to a fairly wide audience; the violence and foul language is kept fairly low, it isn’t classed as a horror film and yet it stands as one of the most intense films of 2016 so far. How does it create such nail-biting suspense?

The franchise has an interesting advertising formula; both Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane have made a point of concealing themselves from the prying eyes of film going audiences and the leak-happy sources of the internet. They expect audiences to go in while knowing as little as possible and this ensures that the tension lands with a deep impact. The original 2008 film started off with the casting which was done in secret, with no scripts being sent out to any candidates; this got each actor and actress in the right mind-set for a chaotic debut film where no one really knows what is happening. The two films both made use of viral marketing campaigns from secretive websites to an alternate reality game, all the while keeping the overall mystery of their narratives intact. Eye-catching taglines like “Something has found us” and “Monsters come in many forms” both work brilliantly to entice audiences. We want to unravel the film’s mysteries and for the most part, this happens gradually as the revelations come to light.

If there’s one keyword I would associate with the two films, it’s “Unknown”. The characters are caught unawares and so are we. That nervousness and fear of what we don’t know or understand is often a key element in building scares and tensions and where most full-on horror films have forgotten about this entirely, the franchise, along with contemporaries such as Super 8 possess a level of pacing and suspense that are often unmatched. Knowing as little as possible before going to see it upped the film’s impact tremendously for me, something which I would highly recommend to anyone who checks it out.

It could be speculated that the Cloverfeld franchise may become an anthology series which uses a different set of characters and filming techniques, but shares a common universe. This method of universe building hasn’t really been done since George Romero’s Dead series which ran from Night of the Living Dead in the sixties all the way through to Survival of the Dead in the late 2000s. The result could be a very unique style which if done right, could keep audiences guessing. Either way, 10 Cloverfield Lane deserves to be successful and I hope the franchise as a whole continues further.