'10 Cloverfield Lane' Viral Marketing Winning Over Skeptical 'Cloverfield' Fans

"10 Cloverfield Lane" by producer J.J. Abrams ("Star Trek Beyond") took the public by surprise. "10 Cloverfield Lane" stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("BrainDead"), John Goodman ("Ratchet and Clank") and John Gallagher Jr. ("The Belko Experiment") is not the sequel to "Cloverfield" that fans have been waiting for.

Screen Rant reports that "Cloverfield" fans are skeptical about accepting "10 Cloverfield Lane" as an actual sequel but as a film in the same "universe," so to speak as "Cloverfield." "This film was originally made under the names 'Valencia' and 'The Cellar' for Paramount's Insurge division (a subsidiary for films made for under 5 million dollars like 'The Devil Inside'), and when Paramount closed it down, this movie (shot and completed) was thrown out to the wind and orphaned," one fan wrote.

"Paramount bought it back up and had Dan Casey and Damien Chazelle do some re-writes so that it would connect to the 'Cloverfield' universe and they went back and did reshoots and add-ons in March 2015 in New Orleans and L.A," the fan said further.

Despite the resistance, however, a new viral marketing campaign for "10 Cloverfield Lane" may be winning "Cloverfield" fans into accepting the new film. The campaign is meant to usher "10 Cloverfield Lane" in, much like a similar viral marketing accompanied the first "Cloverfield." In a separate article, Screen Rant says the "10 Cloverfield Lane" teaser that has been released is well-complemented by the viral marketing.

Supposedly, the website called FunAndPrettyThings was a creation of John Goodman's "10 Cloverfield Lane" character Howard Stambler. The site that has gone online is supposed to be Goodman's attempt to send a message to his daughter to help have both knowledge and tools to survive in an underground bunker.

What seems to have captured people's fancy is the use of text-based survival simulator format, which gives the simulator that old-school feel. /Film says that connections to the original "Cloverfield" film can be uncovered with the updates to the game.

Someone’s come a-Knockin’ pic.twitter.com/mJqEEfjCf4

— 10 Cloverfield Lane (@10CloverfieldLn) February 24, 2016

Those who have survived this far has only a few days more before March 11, 2016 rolls in and "10 Cloverfield Lane" opens in theaters. How do you think "Cloverfield" and "10 Cloverfield Lane" will rate against each other?