A woman wakes in a bunker and is told the world outside is uninhabitable after some kind of apocalyptic disaster. So starts the JJ Abrams-produced 10 Cloverfield Lane, which Abrams calls a "blood relative" to 2008's Cloverfield. Whatever its relation, viewers are in for a treat as the film has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what critics are saying.
- The film revolves around three characters—including "a creepier John Goodman than you've ever seen"—hiding out in a bunker "with their shifting allegiances and a power dynamic that never seems clear," writes Jocelyn Noveck at the AP. Eventually, director Dan Trachtenberg "launches into a climax that will have many talking—though I found it somewhat disappointing and frustratingly baffling," Noveck writes. A warning: "your nails may not survive."
- James Berardinelli agrees it's "packed with suspense and tension and offers some of the best bait-and-switch work of any recent psychological thriller." Goodman, with "the rare talent of being able to play both a cuddly, likeable guy and a frighteningly dangerous one," is "perfect" as doomsday prepper Howard, he writes ReelViews. But the last 15 minutes "don't work as a way to wrap up this story or as an introduction to a larger (generic) canvas."