By Every so often the world of movies produces a heart-wrenching tale that uses children as an endearing vice to tell a story. More common in today’s blockbusters are thrilling, action-packed and violent episodes that create horrifying “what would we do if…” thoughts for viewers.
“Super 8,” directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Cal State Long Beach 2002 alumnus Steven Spielberg, combines both of these ingredients to create a monster of a tale that puts other alien-esque science fiction flicks to shame.
The film, which opened last weekend, begins in early 1979 as the fictious town of Lillian, Ohio mourns the death of a female factory employee who perished in a gruesome industrial accident. This woman is later revealed as the mother of young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), an only child who longs to forget about the tragedy and help his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) make a zombie film for the town’s “Super 8” film festival.
The two enlist a few of their pals as well as Joe’s crush, Alice (Elle Fanning), who, despite some initial resistance and disregard for the project, quickly becomes the best actor of the bunch.
The already-developed plot of a love story and sad loss hugely thickens when the young crew films a tearful goodbye scene at a train station on one quiet, windy night after the town has gone to sleep. The group decides to enhance the on-screen moment by waiting until an approaching train passes to start shooting. As they film Alice’s breathtaking dialogue with her departing “husband,” Joe notices something shocking in the distance — a pick-up truck swerving onto the train tracks in front of the speeding procession.
The resulting collision causes an Armageddon-like explosion with locomotives raining down upon the trainyard and narrowly misses the shrieking, tearful bunch of kids as they stand and stare aghast. Following the seemingly never-ending barrage of metal and enflamed wood, the young film crew peeks around to find that the driver of the pick-up truck that caused the wreckage was a notoriously loony teacher from their school, who utters a cryptic message that bewilders the few before they scramble to avoid being seen by an arriving caravan of military personnel.
The crew agrees to not speak of anything that they’ve seen and try to ignore the horrifying reality of the accident. To busy themselves, they charge on with the production of their film, utilizing the carnage of erupted train parts as a backdrop as they film atop a nearby hill. As they try to complete more and more of their project, increasingly strange on-going events haunt the town of Lillian. Power outages paired with missing electrical lines tip off a string of missing animals, mysteriously-smashed cars and, soon enough, missing people.
After the Air Force evacuates the town with a “wildfire,” the entity responsible for all of the chaos is revealed as a terrifying being. A creature reminiscent of the alien from 2008’s film “Cloverfield” is seen ravaging the already ablaze city and fighting the military forces who, despite being the main force battling the “monster,” appear to hold dark secrets of their own.
Naturally, the brave, yet scared kids charge back into the town to try and figure the mess out and find out what their kooky teacher may have known about the creature causing the ruckus.
What “Super 8” does best is capture the realness of its young protagonists. In the face of death, danger and what seems to be an imposing apocalypse, they discuss their concerns for survival in one breath, and tease each other about their adolescent faults in the next. They do what they can to save their lives and the town they have always known, but not without tending to their passions for creating movies, playing with fire and chasing the schoolgirl they’ve been crushing on.
The entire film is a unique collaborative tale of the innocence of children, paired with an unimaginably terrifying string of events. This combination makes for a thrilling and, at times, scary ride that still makes viewers feel warm inside because of the lovable, realistic characters within it.
Small details are impeccably made throughout this cinematic venture to create a story as visually and audibly period-specific as possible. The ’70s wardrobe of funky button-up shirts and shapely bell-bottom jeans in shades of faded sapphire accompany a fun soundtrack that includes hits from Blondie and The Knack.
Overall, the film is a fun thrill ride with a quote that could serve as its motto: “Bad things happen…but you can still live.”
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