It has been ten years since the original Cloverfield hit the big screen, and for a long time it seemed like there would be no plans to add more entries into its canon. However, due to the film amassing something of a cult following, quite possibly thanks to its imaginative use of the found footage style before the format became overused, it seems the film’s creators believed there was still some life to be found within the brand. Giant, alien life, but life nonetheless.

“Where did all the worms go?”

What is possibly most interesting about this set up is that the scripts being used are not actually sequels, or indeed prequels for that matter. The scripts were not even intended to be Cloverfield films, but are instead pulp sci-fi stories that have retrospectively had the name slapped on them to make them more palatable to today’s franchise-hungry audiences. It has already been shown this can work, and work well, with first of these additions, 10 Cloverfield Lane, actually turning out to be far superior to the original itself.

We open in the near future, where the earth is on the brink of an energy crisis that will likely lead to an all-out world war unless a solution is found quickly. So, a crew of intrepid astronauts venture out into the darkness of space to figure out a way to avert disaster. It is basically the same premise as Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, and no doubt a number of other dystopian sci-fi tales.

However, this is not really a huge problem, as there is actually a good amount of unexpected fun to be had once the film gets going. Sure, the flow feels somewhat erratic, as if the writer may have been in the midst of a sugar-high whilst writing large portions of the script. But if one can switch off the brain when watching certain nonsensical segments, and instead enjoy them as an exercise in entertaining oddness over logic, then a good time might be had.

As for the film’s visual style and special effects, they are unfortunately nothing but passable, and would look relatively at home on a high-end TV show. This is not particularly unexpected since the film is not even getting a theatrical release, condemned to the fringes of Netflix’s home-viewing brand.

The film is all about wondering which members of the crew are going to turn on the others, or which reality is any of this actually happening in, or where did all the worms go? All truly important questions. The crew at the start of the film is just about large enough to rack up a decent body count, which is really one of the big joys when watching this sort of genre.

Overall, it seems to be a positive thing that the Cloverfield franchise is giving a few more strange little sci-fi scripts a shot at the screen. And while this entry cannot quite reach the surprisingly impressive heights of 10 Cloverfield Lane, it still adds more than it detracts from the cinematic universe. Particularly for fans of this genre, while there is not anything ground-breaking here, there is certainly entertainment in the madness, with the film being most successful in its eccentric mid-section, before losing a little steam in a vaguely hammy conclusion