7. Cloverfield (2008)
It’s hard not to think of September 11 while watching Daniel Reeve’s Cloverfield, with its jittery camera capturing the skyward view of something unfathomable unleashing destruction in New York City, and the billowing plumes of smoke filling the streets. Adapting the found footage genre for a giant monster movie was a brilliant concept, immersing viewers in the terror of having to face something they cannot outrun or overpower. So many images from Cloverfield stick with you, especially the head of the Statue of Liberty crashing into the middle of the street. The queasy shots make the chaos feel immediate and in-your-face, juxtaposing the polished aesthetics of typical Hollywood disaster blockbusters such as Godzilla or Independence Day.
