The Psychological Fakery of “10 Cloverfield Lane”

The captive woman, held incommunicado and subject to the will of a sexual predator, is one of the emblematic figures of the time, whether in fiction or in the news, and “10 Cloverfield Lane,” which opens today, offers a new character in the series. Even putting this film into a genre category is a spoiler; the title suggests its affiliation with the 2008 film “Cloverfield,” but that’s saying both too little and too much. The core of the film is a simple suspense plot with overtones of psychological horror—which remain thinly developed. If Steven Spielberg is the director without an id, his spiritual disciple, J. J. Abrams—whose production company, Bad Robot, is behind this new film and “Cloverfield”—is following closely in his footsteps in dissipating virtually all the movie’s symbolic power and metaphorical implications. “10 Cloverfield Lane” is about a captive woman, but it leaches the subject of its significance. Its oversimplifications are all the more unfortunate because the movie is a clever thriller, a starkly suspenseful—albeit sharply limited—pleasure.