Cloverfiled is frenetic, frightful and fun. Shot through the view of a single lens, several post college young adults find themselves running from one of the scariest monsters to be filmed in years. It’s an old trick not to show the audience what is happening to increase the tension, and old tricks work well; at least in Cloverfield. We only get views of the monster when something is being destroyed and you’re never sure if you saw an arm, leg, or other part of the creature. Since our view is always at street level, from a camera held by one of those on the street, not a cameraman out of harms way, the viewer is placed exactly in harms way. In one very intense scene the viewer finds him or herself in between the monster and the military: the missiles, mortars and military rifles are going off all around you and you want to hide. The heart pumps and the body squirms in the theater seat because you forget your in the seat and want to run! This is a movie ingeniously done and worth the trip and cost to the theater.

Cloverfield is rated PG-13 for violence that places it on the edge of R. It is not a feel good movie where everything works out in the end and there are a lot of questions unanswered about the monster. But this monster movie is not about the monster; it is about how we might react as the world falls apart in front of us. There are scenes that mimic the fall of the Twin Towers which are unsettling and strangely appropriate. They cause you to ask “how would I have reacted on 09/11?” And “would I have run toward the danger to save someone, as this small band of young people do?” Clearly on 9/11 many did just that, but would you? Is a monster movie the right venue for asking such questions? If not, you don’t need to worry, you can watch this movie and walk away not asking any of those question. They only fully came to my mind a day later.

Cloverfield may be about many things, and I am sure you will think of other things to reflect on, but mostly it is about going to the movies and having fun and being scared. Like the haunted tunnel at your local amusement park when you were a child: you go to be scared but are glad when it’s over.