Family entertainer

With an ideal plot and choice situations to handle, Super 8 is 112 minutes of absorbing fare

Set in small town America in 1979, Super 8 is a cute little story of five youngsters making a zombie movie when real life events bring horror to their doorsteps. How they and the town folks react to the situation, the suspense and eeriness they encounter, is what the film is all about.

As they are shooting their film at an empty train station at night they witness a bizarre accident. The train has rammed a stationary truck on the track driven by their teacher Mr Woodward (Glenn Turman), who is seriously injured and later hospitalised. But the train was carrying suspicious cargo and the Air Force soon reaches the spot to investigate.

Director J. J. Abrams, who has also written the screenplay, is ably supported by a relativley unknown cast

The deputy sheriff’s son Joe (Joel Courteny) looks like the leader of the delectable gang that has chosen pretty Alice (Elle Fanning) as the heroine of their Super 8 production hoping to get some mileage because of the crush he has on her. But Charles (Riley Griffiths) seems to have an edge we realise later. Cary (Ryan Lee) and Martin (Gabriel Basso) complete the gang of five, a cuter bunch rarely seen on screen.

Told by Woodward to say nothing of the incident as their parents would die, they are in a fix as to how to react. Alice takes her dad’s car and in it the youngsters disappear. But strange things start taking place. First animals disappear. Then Alice is missing. Is there an ET-like thing at work?

Director J. J. Abrams, who has also written the screenplay, has an ideal plot and choice situations to handle. But he refrains from making a glutton of the meal. Slowly, ever so slowly, the story unfolds. It is only in the last quarter we get fleeting glimpses of the monster. While all this is happening, the youngsters have their own personal problems. Cupid fires his arrow and one has to lose. Then the warring families (Joe’s and Alice’s) have to bury the hatchet. Suddenly, the town is a blazing inferno.

But all’s well that ends well with the monster more friendly than expected but it’s 112 minutes of absorbing fare and as a sort of post script, we have the kids completed Super 8 film neatly tying up all the loose ends., humour et al. Abrams is ably supported by a fairly unknown cast, they do an excellent job, especially Elle Fanning, Joel Courteny and Riley Griffiths.

Larry Fong’s camerawork (mostly night shots) is also an asset in ideal, not-to-be-missed family entertainer.

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