Cloverfield (AKA 1-18-08)

Because it only took Viking-Sensei three years (and the approaching end of Errant Story) to come up with a better name for "General Discussions"
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Viking-Sensei
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Cloverfield (AKA 1-18-08)

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Has anybody besides me been following the viral marketing / alternate reality game thing about the new JJ Abrams movie? I never got into Lost myself, however the sheer oddity surrounding this movie has had me following it avidly. Anybody else here been following this?

To recap, for those who haven't: Before the movie Transformers, there was a brief teaser trailer depicting a number of friends at a farewell party for a man named Rob. The entire trailer is shot in camcorder style, as if it were a home movie. After a few scenes of drinking and partying and testimonials from Rob's friends, there is a sudden power outage and an ominous noise. They turn on the news to a story about a possible earthquake, then (being the good movie characters with no common sense that they are) go to the roof for a better view of the chaos. On the roof, they hear a loud metallic-sounding roar, followed immediately by a large explosion somewhere near their location (It's set in NYC) which sends them running inside for cover from the raining burning debris. The footage then appears to jump forward somewhat, because the next thing you see is the cameraman (no sign of his friends or Rob) running out into the street. Someone shouts something about seeing it, someone else yells "I've seen it, it's alive and it's huge!" and then the Statue of Liberty's head crashes into a nearby building and lands on the street before the guy. Teaser ends.

Since then, two websites and some myspace pages have been discovered. First is 1-18-08.com - it started out with what appeared to be a single Polaroid-style picture of two women looking at something, the timestamp indicating it's taking place at 12:36 on 1-18-08. Four more pictures followed, depicting scenes from the party and from the monster attack. After picture 5 went up, the flash code was altered so the pictures now flip over if they're "shaken" on the website - two of them have personal messages written on the back, which lead some people to discover the myspace pages of Rob and his friends (for whom the events of 1-18-08 have not taken place yet. A third update has now added a bit of a surprise - if you open the site and leave it sit for about 6 minutes, you should hear the roar from the trailer.

The second, and far more creepy, came from a clue on one of the party-goer's shirts. He bore a shirt for 'Slusho', and a minimal amount of research quickly lead cluehunters to http://www.slusho.jp, the bad pseudo-japanese website for a frozen drink that features an ingredient dredged up from the bottom of the ocean and bears the motto "You can't drink just six". The history, while in tongue-in-cheek Engrish, is deeply disturbing and talks of people turning into whales. The recently-enabled 'Happy Talk' contained several more messages about whales, and also a few outwardly disturbing quotes (like "Slusho is people!").

I think that's as far as the 'research' has gotten thusfar. There've been a number of other false leads - Ethanhaaswasright.com contained several puzzled and was a popular one at the beginning, but it turned out that it belongs to an entirely unrelated ARG. They're currently looking into http://www.rageofthegods.com, but it's starting to look less and less connected too.
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Re: 1-18-08

Post by BandMan2K »

I've seen the trailer & a number of theories as to what it is.

Personally, I'm thinking it's for Science Team Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets/G-Force.

My reasoning for this? Saw a poster for a Gatchaman movie and it had an image of the G-Force looking sharp in the shadows with a burning city in the background. That's pretty much it.
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Re: 1-18-08

Post by finalcarrot »

I have seen it and I do want to see the movie. I hadn't researched it at all, but thanks for showing me where to find the easter eggs.

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Re: 1-18-08

Post by Boss Out of Town »

"Japanese Freighter Sinking"

This smells like another Godzilla remake.
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Re: Cloverfield (AKA 1-18-08)

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Alright, now that the movie is out (and broke a number of records for box office sales in January) I'm curious to see if anyone saw it and what they thought.
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Re: Cloverfield (AKA 1-18-08)

Post by BloodHenge »

The folks over at Twisted Kaiju Theater seem impressed. If Shin Goji called it "the best kaiju movie ever", pretty much any Godzilla fans should enjoy it.
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