Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has finally revealed the backstory behind the hit found footage film that whipped audiences up into a frenzy.
Cloverfield was a huge success when it first hit screens fifteen years ago. And since then, thousands of fans have dedicated hours upon hours to posting in forums, desperately trying to decode the film.
Sharing their thoughts on what the movie symbolised for them, as well as endless YouTube videos analysing the creature, fans have thrown a lot of ideas around.
But finally, over a decade after the movie came out, Reeves has gone into detail about what the movie really meant, clearing up years of contrasting fan theories.
And it turns out, despite some speculation, the creature was an alien all along.
Reeves opened up in an interview with Syfy, detailing the whole process of making the film, as well as the meaning behind the terrifying creature that ransacked New York.
Discussing his role as director of the movie alongside producer J.J. Abrams, Reeves said: “I never had any experience in my career like the making of Cloverfield.”
“All of it just felt like a seat-of-your-pants experience. Even the trailer was really a test to see if we could do a handheld movie, because they didn’t know if they could track the handheld footage to do the effects.”
Answering what stood out about the film to him, he added: “The thing that I remember is the way that movie looks, is the way that movie felt to shoot. That’s probably the thing that, for me, is really lasting, just the personal, visceral experience of making it. It was thrilling, but it was also kind of terrifying.”
On being asked if he had any kind of a ‘definitive backstory,’ he answered: “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.
“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.
“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.”
Reeves revealed that there is a ‘Easter egg moment’ at the very end of the movie, which is actually the first moment the alien arrives on earth before the carnage is unleashed.
“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 outlet. “That’s actually the beginning of the baby being on Earth.”
So there you have it, after all these years we finally have a definitive answer behind the origin of the monster.
