Cloverfield (2008, dir. Matt Reeves), a found footage monster movie birthed by the thought, “What if the US had a Godzilla of its own?” was met with positive reviews upon it’s release. Praised for being an original creature-feature, many eventually simply brushed it off as just that. However under the surface, unbeknownst to the general public, it was so much more.

This is personally my favourite ARG due to it being the first one I actually found out about/got involved in. Each character was given a MySpace account which interacted with the other characters in the movie, providing more backstory to each investigator. Not only this, many tie in websites featuring puzzles, clues and secrets were also developed.

THE ARG

The Cloverfield ARG focused in on the fictional company ‘Tagruato’ and the slushy drink (which is now beloved to Cloverfield fans) ‘Slusho!’, the latter had already featured in producer J.J. Abrams’ show ‘Alias’ and eventually as an easter egg in many of his other works. Different phone numbers were given during the campaign, which ARG hunters could call and were met with various messages (such as the Cloverfield Monster’s roar and a Tagruato company voicemail). Aswell as this, people could sign up to the ‘Slusho!’ website, which eventually emailed them sonar pictures of a creature approaching Manhattan.

The general plot of the first film’s alternative reality game is that ‘Slusho!’, a subsidiary of Tagruato which the main character of the first film works at, is revealed to contain a highly addictive ingredient: seabed nectar, which is being secretly harvested from the seabed under the guise of an oil rig and has highly negative side effects if consumed in it’s raw form. By drilling for this seabed nectar, the Tagurato corporation wakes up Clover (the monster) and inadvertently begins the events of the movie.

And that’s only the beginning.

Stay tuned for part 2.

further reading: Cloverfield Clues (an entire catalog of the ARG) and an in-depth article.