After being lulled into a false sense of security during an unscary introduction to the characters, the action starts very 9/11 style. Explosions, earth shuddering shakes, booming sounds etc. The use of the single video recorder intensifies the confusion, panic and claustrophobia. Using a single ‘narrator’ also allows the filmmakers to do some interesting things with the movie.

We get to see slightly less of the critter than you do usually in these sort of films; and it’s a bit like takeaway vs healthy food – I felt better for less CGI. There are a lot of questions that a bunch of random people caught up in a disaster like this wouldn’t have answers for, and they’re mercifully not answered. Even the ending comes crashing out of the blue – leaving us puzzling over loose ends and abiding gratitude that the film didn’t go on for a monstrous three hours.

Of course the film doesn’t entirely abandon the conventions of Hollywood film as we know it, after all it is a monster movie. We do get the obligatory romance and some unlikely lucky escapes, but on the whole the film stays within its parameters and kept me at least, crammed into the back of my seat.