Synopsis: (spoilers)

Filmed entirely in the first person, the story begins with Rob introducing day break to New York, and his friend Beth to the audience. The camera is passed onto Rob's friend Hud, who is set the task of filming Rob's leaving party.
During the party there is a power cut, and roars accompanied by explosions are heard. Having seen the mayhem from the roof top, Rob and his companions set out to find an escape route from the island.
When their escape route is destroyed by the monster, Rob and his friends attempt to cross town to reach Beth, who had parted from Rob's party in a sour mood. After reaching her apartment, they rescue Beth and escape via two separate helicopters, but are attacked once more by the monster mid-flight and Hud is killed having crash landed.
Rob and Beth, the last two survivors, hide under a park bridge, make their final testimonials, and after a couple of military bombs are dropped near by, the camera starts to malfunction, and like before in the film, it starts showing a sub-plot, with Beth's face freezing on the camera screen, as it fades to black.

Review:

Matt Reeve's 2008 experimental, mysterious horror plays with the New York Monster cliché that films such as Godzilla had previously founded, but with more to it than just any ordinary monster movie.
With the time of day this film is set, all the lighting is naturally dark, naturally eerie, with what little light there is coming from buildings in the scenes. This aids the films genre, as a dark horror story.
The monster never has it's origins introduced or explained, which helps mystify and darken the story, and with the constant first-person point of view filming, this truly is a new sort of horror, albeit based upon a worn out and classic theme.