Shadow in the Cloud (2020)

March 10, 2021 4:20 PM

A female WWII pilot (Chloë Grace Moritz) traveling with top secret documents on a B-17 Flying Fortress encounters an evil presence on board the flight.

For digital rental in the US on various outlets.

Directed by Roseanne Laing. Written by Roseanne Laing and absolutely no one else worth mentioning it discussing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (10 comments total)

This is nowhere near as tonally jarring as the trailer makes it seem. It's preposterous and a weird combination of genres, but it holds together waaaaaaay better than the plot synopsis or the trailer would indicate. It's a movie that does a four star job of executing a two star premise.

The pacing is so brisk. And the entire plot/script is like some kind of genius "How to make a movie during a pandemic with minimal human interaction" challenge.

Good job, Roseanne Laing and POSITIVELY NO ONE ELSE.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:16 PM on March 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Such a stupid movie, but perfectly executed.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:33 PM on March 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have read so many mixed things about this other than The Person Who Will Not Be Named's involvement. I love Chloe Grace Moretz and will watch just about anything with her (I'm kind of drawing the line at Tom & Jerry, though, but I may wait until I don't have to pay extra for this (or until I have enough credits I don't need to actually spend money on it).

It does seem like a thing that's in my wheelhouse, despite everything. I'm glad to hear it's better than some reviews have made it out to be (but also as stupid as I want it to be).
posted by edencosmic at 5:41 PM on March 10, 2021

I just looked at the poster, and I think it gives away a major plot point, or maybe not, but I just wanted to mention it anyway.
posted by Beholder at 7:41 PM on March 10, 2021

Sounds like it could be a sequel to 'Below', a similarly silly-sounding 'WWII submarine.. but g-g-g-g-ghosts!' movie that was weirdly far more entertaining than it should have been.
posted by FatherDagon at 9:11 PM on March 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

Good to know the film is better than the trailer made it appear.
posted by Coaticass at 11:11 PM on March 10, 2021

Below is by David Twohy, who is one of my favorite directors precisely for his ability to take cheesy b-movie concepts and make them so much more than they had any business being.

Best known for Pitch Black and its somewhat less successful sequels, but see also Below and The Arrival.
posted by Naberius at 11:50 AM on March 11, 2021

The sexist abuse became a bit of a grind. This is, of course, the background radiation of many women's lives, but for a movie advertised as "pure popcorn entertainment" it became an unpleasant slog for the women in our watching group. The reveal of Garrett's motivation was very underwhelming, but all of us are childless by choice, so it might resonate differently for others.

Personally I think it would have been a better, tighter-plotted story if the package had been some kind of anti-gremlin MacGuffin which Garrett could not reveal because the existence of gremlins was Top Secret, the cartoon short at the beginning being intentional disinformation to avoid panic until a solution could be found.

And the entire plot/script is like some kind of genius "How to make a movie during a pandemic with minimal human interaction" challenge.

I had the same thought from the trailer, but apparently principal photography began in June 2019, so I imagine that it was pretty well wrapped up before the pandemic began.
posted by jedicus at 8:16 PM on March 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

And the entire plot/script is like some kind of genius "How to make a movie during a pandemic with minimal human interaction" CHEAP challenge.

An enjoyable film that would probably have fallen into mediocre drivel if not for an absolutely delightful final 5 minutes.

That final image is not only the embodiment of a damn strong woman but also hugely, pointedly, uncomfortable for a certain kind of man. It's like, reverse edge-lordism or something.
posted by M Edward at 8:06 AM on May 15, 2021

I finally watched this. The sexist abuse was definitely a grind to the point of being overwhelmingly annoying. I was also expecting the package to be some sort of gremlin-related object, so there was substantial whiplash in my brain when they opened the package and I realized that this film was a mix of several different genres. I feel like there's the parts here for a cool woman-with-spooky-shit-on-a-plane kind of movie or a cool woman-with-relationships-in-WWII kind of movie, but neither really cohered for me.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:24 AM on June 13, 2021