10 Cloverfield Lane

(Image credit: © 2016 Paramount Pictures. All)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead wakes after a car crash to find herself trapped in a bunker with John Goodman's gloomy survivalist

Mary Elizabeth Winstead wakes after a car crash to find herself trapped in a bunker with John Goodman's gloomy survivalist.

He declares he has rescued her from an apocalyptic calamity that has just befallen the US and rendered the outside world uninhabitable.

But are the real perils outside or on the inside? It's best not to give too much else away about this grippingly twisty mystery thriller (although the title will be a tip off for some).

Suffice to say that first-time feature director Dan Trachetenberg beautifully executes the claustrophobic drama that ensues, steadily building the tension as the mood inside the bunker slides back and forth between black comedy and white-knuckle scares.

The performances are terrific, too. Goodman's patriarchal conspiracy theorist is simultaneously sinister and pitiful, creepy and absurd; John Gallagher Jr's good-old-boy Emmett, the bunker's third occupant, does useful service, while Winstead makes a credibly gutsy and sympathetic survivor.