J.J. Abrams Cloverfield update and related monster movie notes

Lovecraft buzz is harder to kill than a swarm of back yard mosquitoes.

by John P. Meyer

O.K., so I got all caught up in that blasted Cloverfield business when the diabolically-cryptic teaser flew in under everybody's radar during the Transformers theatrical release. Perhaps I succumbed a bit too eagerly to the feeding frenzy of viral gossip and speculation that accompanied Mr. Abrams' clever campaign of tight-lipped undercurrent buzz. But I must say, now that the movie's title has been settled on and we have a full-fledged trailer that fleshes out the story enough to make things a little less cryptic, I'm still impressed with the genuinely creepy and apocalyptic feel of this thing.

Furthermore, early suspicions that our big-ass beastie may in fact be none other than conceived-in-the-USA über-monster Cthulhu are still alive and kicking; one of the boys over at CHUD (specifically, Nick Nunziata) thinks the new trailer "throws off that vibe." And dozens of blog posters alternately agree and disagree with him.

Maybe I'm still on a post-Mist monster movie high, but I hold towering hopes for the 1-18-08 Abrams flick which - while I was scanning recent news and notes surrounding it - led me to the even more thrilling news that Lovecraft's epic novella At the Mountains of Madness is slated for film treatment in 2010, to be helmed by none other than - somebody pinch me! - Guillermo de Toro.

"May you live in interesting times," indeed.