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With stunning efficiency, the movie 'Cloverfield,' now in nationwide release, deploys a Pandora's box of marketing tools that use the Internet's 'viral' tendencies to systematically build audience buzz.

By JUSTIN ELLIS, Staff Writer February 4, 2008

You're supposed to know if you are being marketed to, especially when it's a movie.

There are the well-placed celebrities all over television commercials. The title in its own distinctive font, splashed across ads eating up newsprint.

Of course, there's also the preview in theaters, which combines all of these elements with one-liners and catchy music all edited down to fit just well enough into the mind that the instant the title pops up elsewhere memories come along with it.

So how does this explain the story of the unseen monster in the near-nameless movie with unheard of actors that grossed $40 million in its opening weekend?

This is just one of the many mysteries of "Cloverfield."

By now many people are aware of the story of New Yorkers trying to survive an assault on Manhattan by something large enough to toss around the Statue of Liberty's head like a football.

But the film's unconventional approach to marketing, relying on a mix of new media and the unyielding fanaticism that the Internet can inspire, may be the next step in how Hollywood makes and sells the public on movies.

"It built a conversation point for people to dissect and to analyze," said Chris Thilk, author of the Movie Marketing Madness Blog. "But also built around the fact that we did not see the monster until the movie's release.

"Never underestimate the power of a mystery," he said.

What started with a shaky and cryptic trailer, apparently showing someone's goodbye party minutes before disaster strikes, spun into an online network of sites that combine fans' obsession and inventive viral marketing.

Produced by "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams and directed by Matt Reeves, "Cloverfield" was made for $25 million.

Shot from the perspective of a handheld camera, the story focuses on Rob, a young Manhattanite who is moving to Japan, and his close friends on the night of what would have been his going-away party.

The trailer, which debuted with the opening of "Transformers" last summer, had no title, only a release date of 1-18-08. It would not be until December when a new trailer emerged that the title "Cloverfield" was officially attached to the film.

But in the months in between, fans who went online eager to know more discovered an elaborate series of clues and misdirection leading up to the events in the film. There's Slusho!, the beverage so delicious that you can't drink just six; Tagruato, the villainous parent company of Slusho!; MySpace pages for Rob and the characters as well as news segments showing a wave of destruction moving across the Atlantic Ocean. Somehow it's all connected.

In turn, all the fan speculation and theory led to spun-out blogs, YouTube videos and forum chatter analyzing all the material surrounding the film.

Adam Parvanta of Portland said he was hooked from the minute he saw the first preview. Parvanta said it caught people by surprise with a casual look and feel, which also lent itself to making the film look more suspenseful.

"It seemed so real because of that Handycam first-person perspective," he said. "The confusion, the mayhem and the realness really sucked you right in."

Parvanta said the filmmakers knew the audience they were going after would rush to computers to try and find out more.

In an era of spoilers and other sites dedicated to leaking plot secrets on films, they also knew they had to give people just enough information to keep things interesting but not ruin the story, he said.

"You know that inside everyone there's a little demon sitting on their shoulder saying, 'Go on, one click and you'll know what the monster is,'" he said.

Around the Internet, fans engaged in an elaborate detective game to piece together how the movie and a group of seemingly disparate sites tied together.

On Cloverfield Clues, readers...