When a Huddled Mass, no longer tired, nor poor, gets ugly, angry and possibly even

We never get a good long glimpse of the giant something tearing up New York City in Cloverfield but for most of the movie, we clearly feel the terror and madness such a visitation would invoke amongst those experiencing this kind of a first contact.

Producer J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) and director Matt Reeves appear to understand we do not need exploding eyeballs and full-frontal decapitations to feel fear. We can be afraid and go ‘ooh!’ in our theater seats, held rigid in suspense, through a movie that is only rated PG-13.

For those who do not know what the movie is about… A gigantic vaguely glimpsed monster tears up New York City. Several friends try to escape together and we experience their trek through the videotape they made on their journey.

Our only knowledge going into this is the beginning of the tape, which tells us someone discovered the videotape in what was “formerly known as Central Park.” We do not know who shot it, who survived, or who found it, or even how long ago the taped events took place. Some of our questions receive answers. I will have to see this again to find out if there were more answers than I originally gathered.

And that’s just one way to see the film… Abrams and company infected the Internets with various viral clues, like websites promoting products which may or may not have anything to do with the creature. Slusho.jp is worth visiting as is the manga prequel to the film. Or you could visit the Cloverfield Clues blog.

If this is correct, then while the United States was responsible in large part for the original appearance of Godzilla, Japan may have finally returned the favor.