5. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
10 Cloverfield Lane is an excellent and claustrophobic thriller, and the way it presents and explores its themes have led to both critical success and an excellent reputation. For all intents and purposes, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a self-contained narrative that neither needs nor wants for any wider continuity or sequels. Hollywood, in its infinite wisdom, disagreed.
10 Cloverfield Lane follows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who wakes up after a car accident in an underground bunker owned by Howard (John Goodman). Unsure who to trust or what to believe, Michelle decides to escape the bunker and risk the nuclear fallout that Howard claims will kill her. Her bid for freedom is filled with suspense, and ultimately, it’s unclear as to exactly what Howard’s intentions are.
The film’s final scenes see Michelle get free, only to discover the planet is overrun with murderous aliens. It’s a bizarre tonal shift for a film that had, until that point, been a psychological thriller, and its only really the film’s title that evidences the intent of the strange narrative decision. 10 Cloverfield Lane‘s aliens are its link to the Cloverfield universe, making it an ill-advised tie-in to Cloverfield (and later, The Cloverfield Paradox). Still, it really could have done without this, and ending five minutes earlier would have actually made the film much better.