The Cloverfield Parasites Are More Disturbing Than You Probably Think

When the mysterious trailer for "Cloverfield" appeared out of nowhere playing before the 2007 film "Transformers," it set the internet ablaze. At the beginning of a day and age when every movie had an online presence as it was being made, "Cloverfield" was made under the radar as a part of producer J.J. Abrams' "mystery box" ethos. Fans picked apart every detail from the short, mysterious teaser trailer. They wondered if this secretly was a new "Godzilla" movie or something else entirely. Evoking images reminiscent of the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy, clearly a giant monster was ravaging a city, but what was this creature, and why was it in New York?

Continuing to build intrigue, Paramount Pictures set up numerous viral marketing websites giving fans clues and backstory of the events of the upcoming film. Just as fans looked into every detail of the film's marketing before its release, they've continued to pick apart every detail of the film since its release in January 2008. More details have come to light about the "Cloverfield" franchise as two other in-universe films have been made, 2016's "10 Cloverfield Lane" and 2018's "The Cloverfield Paradox." The director of the original film, Matt ("The Batman") Reeves, even spilled some disturbing details about the parasites that run amok in that film.

In an interview with MTV, director Matt Reeves offered up some details about the little parasites seen running through the sewers of New York during the monster invasion. In the film, the character Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) is bitten by one of these said creatures. When taken in by the Army and medical technicians, she is pulled aside from her group and explodes into a geyser of blood. The techs seem to know this is a side effect of the bites. Reeves said, "If you watch closely, you'll actually see one guy in particular get wheeled [past the camera], and his innards have exploded from the inside-out. ... Apparently, there is quite a bad effect from the venom of these little parasites."

Reeves goes on to explain further what the little parasites are and how they differ from the giant monster tearing apart the city. "We wanted to have an intimate terror that went beyond something huge stomping around," he said. "The same way we have bacteria on our skin, this thing has parasites." He went on to say that these parasites don't eventually grow into the giant monster — they exist as they are. Reeves shared some details on the parasite's creation as well, "The guy who developed the creature, Neville Page, did a really brilliant thing: Everything had to be grounded in reality, and he drew on biology and evolution, even though this creature never existed, to try to understand it." This is one more piece of the "Cloverfield" puzzle that fans can obsess over. On top of the normal fan speculation from the three "Cloverfield" universe films, fans also just got an exciting bit of news about the arrival of a new film in series to look forward to.