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10 Cloverfield Lane

9/10

Stars: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Despite one or two niggles over its plotting, this is a real goer of a film that generates virtually non-stop suspense all the way to a gasp-provoking twist that leads to an action climax comparable to that in the original Poltergeist. Plus it has a sturdy heroine in Winstead, who'll have you gripping the arms of your seat in the hope that she'll somehow survive.

Fleeing a massive row with her boyfriend (voice of Bradley Cooper), Michelle (Winstead) is driving across country trying to ignore his mobile-phone pleas for her to come back, when she's hit by another vehicle and catapulted down a hillside. Coming round some time later, she finds herself in an underground chamber, her injured leg chained to the wall. Her captor, Howard (a change of pace for Goodman who's great in the role), explains that he has in fact saved her from certain death being brought on by a contaminated countryside after what Howard assumes is "a chemical or nuclear attack'.

This is a brilliant thriller, its tension kept on high by frenzied, concentrated direction and a percussion-led score of intense urgency.

David Quinlan

USA 2016. UK Distributor: Paramount. Colour by deluxe.
99 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 24 Jul 2016

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