Cloverfield (2008) Saturday Monster Movies

Found footage is often a tired trope. By the time Cloverfield came out in 2008, audiences had already seen their share of jittery handheld horror. But this film took the concept and used it with real purpose. The camcorder isn’t just a plot device. It becomes the lens through which we see what most monster movies overlook, the ordinary people caught underneath the collapse.

Most kaiju films give us the military, the scientists, the experts. Cloverfield gives us a group of New Yorkers trying to survive one terrible night. The film opens at a farewell party. The characters are young, distracted, making life decisions, not expecting the day to be anything but a celebration. Then the lights flicker. Something explodes downtown. The head of the Statue of Liberty crashes into the street. Panic. Screaming. Running. The camera keeps rolling.

What works about the found-footage format here is that it invites us to imagine how we would respond in the moment. I’ve lived through a few minor disasters, tornadoes, a flood, an earthquake, and I know the feeling of disorientation. The sirens. The not-knowing. You don’t immediately think about the big picture. You think about who to call. Where to go. Whether your people are safe. Cloverfield taps into that fear. It doesn’t give you the monster’s origin story or the military's plan. It gives you a group of friends, a city under siege, and a camcorder that won’t stop recording.

And that’s where the film’s deeper message comes in. Rob, the main character, gets a voicemail from Beth, a woman he loves but pushed away. She’s trapped in her apartment. Injured. So, he decides to go get her. It’s not smart. The streets are dangerous. The creature is still out there. But he can’t do nothing. And his friends follow him. In the middle of destruction, their choice is not self-preservation but self-giving.

At the very end of the film, after everything has collapsed, the tape reverts to an earlier moment. A day at Coney Island. Rob and Beth are smiling. The sun is shining. Life is good. A reminder that joy once existed, and that it still matters. In a world filled with judgment and disaster, memory becomes a form of hope.

Cloverfield doesn’t offer tidy answers. But it does offer something real. A small group of people choosing love over fear. Faithfulness over survival.