@rvcanuck said:

Where did the creatures come from? Presumably they're aliens but they don't seem like tool users and they're blind to boot so how can they operate a space ship? It might have made more sense to make the film part of the Cloverfield franchise after all.

John Krasinski didn't want to bother with an epilogue or extended exposition. He just wanted to drop the audience into the centre of this story. But he did explain the creature's origin in interviews. Essentially, they're a parasitic organism that have evolved to become the top predator on their native planet. Their planet suffered some sort of catastrophic cataclysm that they survived because of their armoured skin. Pieces of their planet blasted into space with them on it and over time, they were introduced into our ecosystem through meteorites.

Honestly, I'd rather not know that and just enjoy the movie without the needless backstory. It puts us in the minds of the family that probably didn't know where these things came from either. They just learnt about it and looked for ways to survive. Hope this helped!

@rvcanuck said:

Where did the creatures come from?

I prefer having it a mystery... It's more fun and scary that way... Explanations aren't scary...

Better to wonder whether or not they are Aliens.... Maybe they're scientific research gone wrong... Maybe they're a bio-weapon.... Maybe, they were always here!

Having this unanswered adds to the sense of dread in the film... To have the director explain it in film, or in interviews diminishes the mystery and the thrill of the movie...

I pondered that and came up with aliens. The biggest question for me was how the lights stayed on if everything has gone to hell? Generator would be too loud. Batteries I suppose but that was never addressed.

@Oldnewbie said:

I pondered that and came up with aliens. The biggest question for me was how the lights stayed on if everything has gone to hell? Generator would be too loud. Batteries I suppose but that was never addressed.

Same thing I was thinking. But I guess car batteries and other supplies seemed to be everywhere since most the population was eradicated.

Bigger question:

4 or 5 people in the family at different times in the film. We were close to 400 days in at the end. Assuming 1 poop/person/day that's over one and a half thousand poops that had to be done silently...

@M. LeMarchand said:

Bigger question:

4 or 5 people in the family at different times in the film. We were close to 400 days in at the end. Assuming 1 poop/person/day that's over one and a half thousand poops that had to be done silently...

Ha ha ha ha

@rvcanuck said:

Where did the creatures come from? Presumably they're aliens but they don't seem like tool users and they're blind to boot so how can they operate a space ship? It might have made more sense to make the film part of the Cloverfield franchise after all.

How could they get near anything that use power. Our noise pollution alone should've drove the monsters insane. Bats and other animals that use high pitched sound should've drove them crazy.

@drjekel_mrhyde said:

@rvcanuck said:

Where did the creatures come from? Presumably they're aliens but they don't seem like tool users and they're blind to boot so how can they operate a space ship? It might have made more sense to make the film part of the Cloverfield franchise after all.

How could they get near anything that use power. Our noise pollution alone should've drove the monsters insane. Bats and other animals that use high pitched sound should've drove them crazy.

Well such constant frequency would also drive dogs crazy and they are not (for the most part). So we do not produce such frequencies in enough quantity to do any damage to these beings. The hum of power stations would not affect them. The rush of a waterfall simply voids out other sounds. I do not think bats were much of a threat or they were left alone. Maybe all that is left in the animal kingdom besides pockets of people.

I liked the omission of other people being the enemy as well. Too many post-apocalyptic films have that added conflict where people turn on people to steal supplies, kill, etc. Glad they decided not to add that element here. But in the sequel?

@Oldnewbie said:

I pondered that and came up with aliens. The biggest question for me was how the lights stayed on if everything has gone to hell? Generator would be too loud. Batteries I suppose but that was never addressed.

I figured the power plants were still working particularly the ones that generate electricity by waterfall.

they looked quite humanoid so that they should be aliens didn't even crossed my mind, I went with usual zombie assumption of mutation, just mutated people who have better teeth, ears and strength :-)

watched this last night, much better than i expected from the mass of dire reviews btw, but anyway, initially(until we clearly saw they were biological later on) i thought the premise could be some kind of rogue A.I as in the first attack scene we see, you couldn't see much and i though i saw a kind of fixed metal blade moving along, so wrongly assumed it was mechanical(bit like the "things" in the movie screamers), but no, it was an organism, interesting to read the backstory posted by someone on this thread about them being distributed here on meteorites, fair enough, but if i am being pedantic, that is unlikely given they can be killed by a shotgun blast, that they survived entry to our atmosphere and the extreme temperatures that brings, let alone the MASSIVE kinetic impact :) - good film though, nice to see a somewhat different take/outside the box on this type of film rather than the same old!

Over all I think the fact we were not told what they were or where they came from added to the creepiness of the film. Talk of a sequel has started and even the creator said he had not planned on one but was willing to try and work out something. I fear in that process we'll learn too much about the creatures and that mystery will be solved and disappointing. They can only be a couple of things;

• alien beings
• created in a lab

Or maybe a life form here before us that was reawakened. I'd rather not know.

They were aliens. The headlines on one of the newpaper articles the father kept mentioned the monsters were from another planet.

@april422 said:

the father kept mentioned the monsters were from another planet.

As long as he didn't mention it too loudly!

@thebarnman said:

@april422 said:

the father kept mentioned the monsters were from another planet.

As long as he didn't mention it too loudly!

Or they will coming for you next!