Finally, the movie is out and now everyone has one question: what is the Cloverfield monster?

The movie left the monster shroud in mystery. Where did it come from? How did it get to NYC? What IS it?

This hub will give you a better idea of where to go to look for information from the Cloverfield viral campaign and pin together as much information as humanly possibly about the creature that is the Cloverfield monster.

If you haven't seen the movie and want to remain unspoiled, leave now! This is NOT a spoiler free Cloverfield website!

You can get some spoiler free information about Cloverfield by visiting my Squidoo page on the movie.

This is perhaps the most difficult question to answer.

The short form is: he's a monster. While there are some clues to his origin (see below) this still doesn't tell us much about what he is.

Going by looks, he seems both amphibious and reptilian in nature. He is gray and scaly, much like a dinosaur. He has long "arms" and shorter legs. He also has what looks to be smaller "arms" between his legs and frontal arms.

At best, he could probably be described as a sea creature. During what is the most up close and personal shot of the monster's face, we see that he has what almost looks like some sort of "gill" like feature on his face that expands when he breathes (at least it appears to be the result of his breathing). This seems to further support his title as "sea creature."

J.J. Abrams, producer of Cloverfield, says, "The concept for the monster is simple. He's a baby. He's brand-new. He's confused, disoriented and irritable. And he's been down there in the water for thousands and thousands of years."

So, essentially, he is a 1000+ year old baby. That's some baby!

According to some theories, the monster was disturbed by the work of Tagruato, a deep sea drilling operation and owner of Slusho, a corporation that makes high-energy drinks. If you'll remember, Rob Hawkins was to leave for Japan as he was named the VP of marketing of some company. That company? Slusho. While I've found no indication that this was ever mentioned in the film, it was mentioned on the character's MySpace page.

Another theory is that Tagruato was somehow using the monster for this operation. I find this theory to be a little farfetched, but you never know.

He heard that there was a great sale on Manolo Blahniks.

As was said above, theories regarding Tagruato disturbing the monster from either a slumber or its home seem to be the most prevalent.

According to the viral marketing campaign, the monster's first attack wasn't actually Manhattan, but at one of the corporations deep sea oil drilling stations off the coast of Connecticut. While the news clip released by Paramount doesn't state that it's a monster that attacked (in fact, it is blamed on an extremist group by the name of Tidowave), it's pretty obvious by some of the clues given in the clip that this was the awakening of the monster.

The video below contains the news clip.

As you saw in the movie, the Cloverfield monster came with detachable friends.

Most seem to agree that the small spider-like monsters that fell off the monster were actually parasites (and perhaps what made the monster so irritable - you know, other than being shot at and such).

The parasites seem to be even more dangerous to humans than the Cloverfield monster himself. A bite from one of the parasites seems to cause a fatal amount of pressure to build up within the victims body, causing them to explode.

How these bites have affected the Cloverfield monster is unknown.

Currently, I've only found one decent photo.

You can see it below.