A whopping 15 years after its release Clovefield detector Matt Reeves has confirmed the monster’s origin story.
Cloverfield, produced by J.J. Abrams, was released all the way back in 2008 and became an instant hit with movie-goers, becoming one of the highest grossing found footage movies ever released. You can check out the trailer here:
The movie was so popular, it spawned a spinoff and a prequel, 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox respectively, and this week Paramount released a Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook to mark its anniversary.
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Since its release a decade and a half ago, the monster in the movie has been heavily analyzed by fans, with numerous YouTube videos dedicated to the topic.
And in a recent interview with Syfy, Reeves has cleared up all speculation by revealing the monster’s backstory and confirming it was an alien.
When asked if he had ever come up with a ‘definitive backstory’, he replied: “For sure we did. Because you have to figure how to direct the monster, so to speak. So you have to understand what's going on with them emotionally.
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“And for me, the big secret was that the monster was a baby and was experiencing separation anxiety.
“The reason the monster was freaking out is because they were having fits based on looking for their mother.
"And so, [the monster] was just as afraid as the main characters, because it seems like there would be nothing more terrifying than the human element fighting this giant monster element and, actually, both of them are just terrified. That's a mess. That's not good.
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“So that part of it was absolutely something that we talked about in the development of the creature and in terms of how I shot it.”
So there you have it - not just any monster, but a baby monster who was just as scared of us as we were of it - not that you’d be able to tell from the reactions of the humans in the film, of course.
Reeves also said the moment the alien comes to the planet is shown in an ‘Easter egg moment’ at the end of the flick.
“When we revisit that footage where they’re on the Ferris wheel at the end, you can see the meteor flying down and hitting the ocean,” he told the publication. “That’s actually the beginning of the baby being on Earth.”
Topics: Film and TV
Claire Reid