“Shadow in the Cloud” is a war horror movie directed by Roseanne Liang. She had to do rewrites of the script after screenwriter Max Landis was accused of sexual harassment. I am not sure if he was doing homage or cribbing from two shows. The gremlin on the wing appeared in the classic Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. The airman trapped in the ball turret was done in Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories “The Mission”. The gremlin idea goes back to the Battle of Britain when RAF mechanics invented a rodent-like creature that would tamper with engines. It was their way of explaining unexplainable problems. The idea of a female Flying Officer came from the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) which ferried bombers to Great Britain in WWII. The movie has an homage to them over the ending credits. And that’s Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” at the end of the movie.
The movie starts off with a WWII training-style cartoon featuring a gremlin. Foreshadowing much? In 1943 in New Zealand, Flying Officer Maude Garrett (Chloe Grace Moritz) boards a B-17 with orders to deliver a secret package. The crew is not welcoming and the sexist remarks come fast and furious. (If this is the toned-down script, I’d like to see the original. Oops, that did not come out right.) She is referred to as a “dame”, “broad”, and “bitch”. And she is forced to make the trip in the ball turret which gets stuck, naturally. While confined, she sees a gremlin tampering with the engines. And the plane has to deal with Japanese planes. Things escalate. Imagine if William Shatner had to deal with the gremlin getting in the plane.
I can’t describe how insane this movie is without spoiling it. Needless to say that the gremlin creates mayhem. The movie could fit in the suicide mission subgenre as few of the crew will survive. Before you ask how many of the crew did survive, I’ll point out that this B-17 had a crew of only 7 (instead of the standard 10). Probably to cut down on the actor salaries. The actors are all unknowns except Moritz. She dominates the film and there is a long stretch when the camera is only on her. We can hear the crew continuing its sexist remarks, but we do not see them. Obviously, we get to see them getting gremlined. Moritz’s performance is typical for an endangered lead female in a creature feature. She keeps a straight face. This is not a campy film.
It is a wild-ass ride. Things escalate in a horrible way and this horror format even concludes with the return of the monster after presumed dead. Oh, sorry. I guess I should have spoiler alerted that for those who have never seen a horror movie. With all that said, is it a war movie? Yes, because it is set in WWII, takes place on a bomber, and that bomber is attacked by Japanese planes. Plus, gremlins are associated with WWII. I am not going to use a magnifying glass on a movie that features a bad-ass female action hero. And a cool creature.
“Shadow in the Cloud” brings the gremlin into the 21st Century. The cartoon was a nice touch and reminds the viewers that originally the creature was mischievous more than evil. The special effects are outstanding. This movie has much better CGI than most modern war movies. The gremlin is genuinely scary and there is some edge of your seat chaos. Enough to take your mind off the ridiculous aspects of the plot. Why didn’t they just bail out when they got over land? The contents of the package and the explanation are straight out of a horror movie. But unique.
“Shadow in the Cloud” is an entertaining bit of fluff. The first half is filled with sexist dialogue and the second half is filled with the sexists getting ripped apart. It’s a feminist fantasy! And a cool 83 minutes of different for war movie fans. Keep in mind that there are very few war horror movies that are worth watching. Just being decent puts it in the upper tier. Plus, old RAF mechanics can say “I told you so!”
GRADE = B
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