Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Roseanne Liang
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Beulah Koale, Taylor John Smith, Callan Mulvey, Benedict
Wall, Joe Witkowski, Byron Coll
Mention Gremlins today and you'll likely think of Joe Dante's 1984
blockbuster. The origin of the mythical creatures goes back to the 1920s
however, when RAF pilots invented the label to describe creatures that they
blamed for the malfunctioning of their planes. The concept of Gremlins
really took off in WWII following the publication of Roald Dahl's novel 'The
Gremlins', a story of miniature creatures dismantling RAF planes. The lore
spread to American pilots and the Gremlin instantly became a staple of
popular culture.
Prior to Dante's film, the most notable screen appearance of a Gremlin came
in the Richard Donner directed 1963 Twilight Zone episode
'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet', in which William Shatner plays an airline
passenger who witnesses a Gremlin attempting to foil one of the plane's
engines (the episode was remade for 1983's
Twilight Zone: The Movie).
With Shadow in the Cloud, director Roseanne Liang borrows the setup of 'Nightmare at 20,000
Feet' and takes us back to the aerial campaign of WWII. Following a fake
propaganda short instructing air crews to be on the lookout for Gremlins,
we're introduced to our heroine, British Flight Officer Maude Garrett
(Chloë Grace Moretz), who joins the multi-national crew of a B-17
Flying Fortress taking off from a New Zealand airstrip. Maude carries a
suspicious piece of luggage, which she is reluctant to part with,
instructing gunner Quaid (Taylor John Smith) to ensure it remains
upright.
Not wanting a woman getting in the way of their mission, the men stuff
Maude into the gun turret in the plane's belly. Initially Maude simply has
to contend with the good old-fashioned sexism of the bomber crew, but when
communications are cut she finds herself left to deal with a greater threat
- a Gremlin on the plane's wing!
For roughly its first half, Shadow in the Cloud plays out in
the fashion of single-hander movies like Buried and
Locke, with Moretz the only face on screen as she communicates via radio with
the rest of the crew. Moretz may look unfeasibly fresh-faced for the role of
an RAF officer, but her expressive features go a long way to keeping us
engaged in her plight. As the plot unspools, it becomes clear that Maude may
not be whom she claims, and that she may even pose a threat to the crew.
Liang's clever direction in a confined space and Moretz's performance help
create an air of claustrophobic paranoia.
It's when the turret hatch is prised open and Maude is given free rein of
the plane (both inside and outside) that turbulence begins to set in to
Shadow in the Cloud. Gone is the taut buildup of tension, replaced by laughably over the top
set-pieces that rely on unconvincing CG. The Gremlin itself becomes
something of a secondary threat as Japanese fighter planes make an
appearance and the contents of Maude's luggage is revealed. Ill-fitting
soundtrack cues make the action seem even more silly, and we quickly realise
the film has given up any pretense of taking its far-fetched premise
seriously - so why should we?
It's in the messy final act that Shadow in the Cloud runs
into the problem of wanting its cake and eating it in terms of its heroine.
In recent years we've seen a desire for "strong female leads", but too many
filmmakers take that to mean literal physical strength rather than character
traits like resolve, passion, determination etc. A "strong" lead doesn't
work in the horror genre, where vulnerability is key, and so when Maude
turns into Wonder Woman, hanging off an upside down plane and getting into a
sparring match with the Gremlin, any engagement we had with her plight is
erased.
Taken out of context, the first half of
Shadow in the Cloud resembles a fun instalment of an
Amazing Stories type anthology series. There's a rip-roaring
40-minute yarn here, but unfortunately
Shadow in the Cloud follows it up with another 43 minutes of
eye-rolling nonsense.
