18 Years Of Cloverfield: The Underrated Sci-Fi Horror Franchise

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As a huge sci-fi fan, I’ve seen a lot of amazing franchises become massive hits. But sometimes, really good ones just slip under the radar. Eighteen years ago, one of those underrated gems actually started, and honestly, it deserves way more attention. We’re talking about a genre packed with all-time greats – some of the best movies ever are sci-fi – so it’s easy for a fantastic series to get lost in the shuffle.

Science fiction is a huge genre, offering endless possibilities for unique stories and combinations with other types of films. While this means there’s something for every viewer, it also unfortunately leads to great movies sometimes being overlooked or forgotten. This is true for the Cloverfield franchise, which started almost twenty years ago.

Cloverfield Is Still One Of The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Horror Franchises

I still remember when Cloverfield came out in 2008 – it really shook up the sci-fi world! It was this incredibly immersive monster movie, done in the found footage style. The whole thing is presented as if it’s footage from someone’s personal camcorder, and it follows a group of friends just trying to have a party in New York City when… well, things go crazy.

The group’s evening goes from bad to worse when a huge earthquake rocks the city, triggering an explosion and unleashing a colossal creature. As they struggle to survive these events, they also face the threat of dangerous parasites while trying to stay safe amidst widespread chaos and destruction.

The film Cloverfield was a major success, leading to a franchise with two sequels. The first sequel, 10 Cloverfield Lane, released in 2016 and directed by Dan Trachtenberg, tells a separate story. It follows a woman who wakes up in an underground bunker after a car accident, where two men claim the world has been devastated and is no longer safe.

The movie 10 Cloverfield Lane was both a hit with critics and audiences, and many consider it the strongest film in the Cloverfield series. Its sequel, The Cloverfield Paradox, came out on Netflix two years later and told the story of astronauts trying to fix Earth’s energy problems with a new experiment—an experiment that ultimately went terribly wrong.

Although The Cloverfield Paradox didn’t live up to the standards of the first two Cloverfield movies, the franchise as a whole remains surprisingly good and deserves more recognition. Cloverfield boasts a unique and imaginative universe – borrowing from other stories but still feeling fresh – and its anthology approach allows for compelling storytelling with a fascinating backstory, blending science fiction, horror, and emotional drama.

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Why Cloverfield Still Needs Another Sequel After The Cloverfield Paradox

Each Cloverfield film tells a standalone story, but they all exist within the same shared universe. However, the series still feels unfinished. Especially The Cloverfield Paradox, the movies have raised a lot of questions that the franchise needs to address to fully develop and explain this intriguing world.

While not perfect, The Cloverfield Paradox offered a fascinating new direction for the franchise, broadening its scope. It definitely left viewers eager for more! The Cloverfield series has proven it can be incredibly versatile, successfully tackling genres like found footage, psychological thrillers, and space horror across its three films, and there’s still plenty of potential for future stories.

The Cloverfield series would be improved by directly continuing the story of one of its existing films, tying up loose ends and resolving key unanswered questions. Currently, the future of the Cloverfield franchise is uncertain, though there’s been talk of a third movie, and those involved are keeping details closely guarded as usual.

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2026-01-18 18:28