This movie could have been titled “Oh My God!!” Or maybe “The Blair Witch Visits Manhattan.” Mayhem unfolds relentlessly from the perspective of a bouncy handheld camera. The dialogue sounds mostly unrehearsed and contains many exclamations of astonishment. After getting to know the likeable characters we’re plunged into a waking nightmare as buildings shake and tumble. We have no choice but to run vicariously with the panicked crowd, dodging flaming debris in a street-level Russian Roulette. The first-person, isolated view of Hell on Earth recalls 2005’s The War of the Worlds. Like in that film the plot stays centered on a handful of people and how they cope in a crisis. But unlike War, Cloverfield is actually thrilling and at many times truly scary. Concentrating our attention on and through a cheap viewfinder not only puts us in the action but makes the typical movie monster and special effects much more real by contrast. The pandemonium is frightening long before the creature appears, stirring up familiar anxiety of not knowing what could happen at any moment or why. Some critics decry the similarity to 9/11 footage, but the simple image of dust clouds pouring down city boulevards gives me chills that no CGI aliens could. Another sticking point with critics is the largely unexplained nature of the attack on New York City. I’d say it’s been proven that such an open-ended assault evokes a lingering sense of genuine terror.

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