Thanks to the Toronto Film Festival, I was able to preview Shadow in the Cloud. If I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t have looked twice at it otherwise. And I have to say that the movie puzzled me. It was unlike anything I have ever watched before. My initial thoughts were that I didn’t enjoy it very much at all, but as I let what I just saw sink in, it dawned on me that it was actually quite good. I think I didn’t like it straight away because I was put out of my comfort zone though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The story follows a World War II pilot named Maude Garret (Chloe Grace Moretz) who infiltrates a B-17 Flying Fortress for a mission. Whatever happens to her, she must guard the top secret documents that she has brought along on board. But Garrett soon realises that this is not going to be as easy as she expected. The rest of the crew aren’t trustworthy and on top of that, she encounters an evil presence that threatens to ruin everything she has worked so hard for.

Let me start with the positives. Chloe Grace Moretz led this movie amazingly. A lot of the scenes focused solely on her and I was very impressed with the direction in which she took her character. During the war, there weren’t many women in high rankings of power and if there were, it is rare that they were heard of. So seeing such an established and bad ass lady pilot who didn’t take shit from anybody was pretty fucking cool.

Something else I enjoyed was how this was filmed. While the dark greens and reds did tire me out, the fact that Chloe was trapped in such a small space throughout was unlike anything I had seen before and it really added an extra oomph to atmosphere. Similarly, the special effects were well executed and made me feel like I was there.

I also need to give props to the fact that this was directed by a woman. Having a woman’s touch and knowing how closely Roseanne Liang worked with her lead star really did allow for that girl power to shine through.

There were, however, some aspects I couldn’t wrap my head around no matter how hard I tried. First of all, the genre for this one is horror and that is something that I normally stay far away from. Luckily the supernatural nature wasn’t too bad for me to sit through in the end, but I did feel like it was out of place in the rest of the story. I understand that people believed in monsters during this time period, but I don’t think it really added anything.

If you are in the mood for something totally bonkers and outside of your comfort zone, then this is the movie for you. Allow yourself to be open minded for a change!

Rating: ♥♥♥