10 Cloverfield Lane “A Scarier Movie” Than First Film, Says J.J. Abrams

Hatched under the shadow of Star Wars: The Force Awakens – and right under our noses – Dan Trachtenberg’s quasi-sequel 10 Cloverfield Lane is inching closer and closer to its theatrical bow early next month.

Though it may bear the name of Matt Reeves’ 2008 creature feature, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a decidedly different breed of horror, with producer J.J. Abrams even going so far as to say that the continuation is “a scarier movie” than its predecessor.

While discussing the imminent release with Empire, Abrams skated around plot details, confirmed that Reeves and Drew Goddard – screenwriter on Cloverfield – are attached, and hinted at how he, Bad Robot and Paramount kept the project under wraps in the first place.

It’s a really beautifully told and very scary story. A lot of scary movies simply use gore as fear, this movie uses fear as fear. I feel like this is a scarier movie in a lot of ways. I feel like it couldn’t be more different. It’s not called Cloverfield 2 for a reason, and it’s very much a different film than what Matt Reeves directed, though he’s an executive producer on this with (Cloverfield screenwriter) Drew Goddard.

Barrelling onto the Internet like the Statue of Liberty’s head careering down the streets of NYC, 10 Cloverfield Lane‘s debut trailer caught everyone by surprise. Here, Abrams reflected on that all-important element of surprise.

I mean the whole idea is let’s have the most fun we can, and it’s incredibly fun any time you can to do the unexpected and ignore the template. Cloverfield did it with the first movie, releasing a trailer for a film no-one had heard of, and we thought if we can do that again on this one, it would be a fun way to get people interested. It’s a movie that’s worth the attention.

10 Cloverfield Lane creeps out of the shadows and into theaters on March 11 in the States. Those in the UK can look forward to the feature on March 18. Beyond that, Abrams recently hinted that talks are underway about a possible third movie rooted in the same universe.