1-18-08 is finally upon and with it brings us Cloverfield, JJ Abrams’ newest and likely most hyped project. In honor of this mysterious monster who wants to rip apart New York City I thought we could take a look back over the past six months worth of its viral marketing.

Our first glance was the teaser trailer tacked on to the front of The Transformers. We didn’t learn much more from that trailer than our new pal Rob was trying to make a peaceful exit off to Japan only to have his bon voyage party interrupted. The trailer brought up lots of rumors. It sounded to me like the guy was yelling “it’s a lion,” but it turns out that was “it’s alive.” So yeah, we pretty much new nothing.

So after months of little more than jarring camera shots plenty more rumors popped up regarding the monster. Most of those rumors were false and our reports on the matter were no better. What we thought could be the actual monster turned out to just be fan art. No worries though, more credible reports followed with extremely rough but allegedly accurate representations. You can follow the link here if you want, or keep yourself in the dark. Plenty more spoilers out there if you keep digging.

Is Cloverfield in your plans for this weekend?