A Quiet Place (2018)
Directed by John Krasinski
It seems as of late that comedic actors have been making some pretty great horror movies. Get Out was a breath of fresh air in the genre, and A Quiet Place received great praise from critics and fans alike. It is nice to see that horror is still alive and kicking in 2018 and that new ideas are not gone. I wanted to see this in theater but I could never get my wife to go, so I had to wait until it came on Amazon Prime, then she watched it with me…lol.
A Quiet Place focuses on a family living in near silence due to the fact that they are surrounded by creatures that hunt by sound. Any noise made above a light whisper causes the creatures to attack and kill. They go to great lengths to keep quiet, even making paths of sand to walk on to muffle footsteps. You see the result of too much noise in the beginning when the youngest son is snatched up by a monster and killed because his toy was making too much noise. The father ran for him but was a second too late, then he looked at the camera and smirked, not really but it is Jim Halpert after all. The whole family is barefoot and uses sign language to communicate, which is good because of the lack of sound and the fact that the daughter is deaf. John Krasinski aka Jim from the Office plays the father, Emily Blunt plays his wife in the movie and real life, and they have three kids, at the beginning lol. The youngest son is killed by a creature because of the sound of a toy he is playing with. The wife becomes pregnant later on and they prepare for birth by making sure they have sound proof rooms and bassinets set up. Will the family continue to survive? Will the baby be able to stay quiet in the silent world? These are the questions you have at the beginning.
The acting is pretty good even with the lack of dialogue. As you could imagine there isn’t much noise in the movie as a whole, but obviously with the elements of the world they live in you kind of understand. Most of the dialogue is in sign language and motions. Any small noise made makes you tense and nervous. After the death of their youngest child, the family changes and the father is the most affected. His demeanor becomes harsher and less understanding, his soul purpose now is to keep the remaining children and his wife safe from the creatures. You feel his pain and his frustration with the world he lives in.
The creatures are pretty crazy looking, kind of like Venom from Spiderman with super sonic hearing. They are incredibly fast and have huge claws they use to rip people to shreds. The creatures are blind and hunt solely by sound. Their only weakness is a high-pitched sound emitted by the deaf daughter’s homemade hearing aids. The deaths are quick but bloody, and you see a fair amount of gore but not a bloodbath. The atmosphere is the biggest part of this movie, like I mentioned earlier you get super tense with every small sound. You really begin to feel for the family because of how difficult it would be to be so silent 24/7. Think about it, you can’t even rip ass without dying haha. What if you’re sleeping and you crank out a Bronx cheer? A monster would run in and rip your head off just for farting.
A Quiet Place is a very dramatic and gut-wrenching movie. Even without much dialogue what the characters sign to each other is impactful and important. The creatures are cool looking and the idea of them solely hunting by sound is pretty cool. Krasinski is great in this movie, you feel his emotions greatly without words, just from looks. He has come a long way since The Office. I kept waiting for him to look into the camera and smirk. Maybe his son would have survived if Dwight Schrute was there to karate kick the monster? Ok I’m going off the rails now lol. I would suggest you watch this movie for a new fun horror installment. I give this movie an A-. While I really enjoyed this movie, the ending was rather abrupt and left me wanting more, which is bad and good.
