How many times have you watched a horror film which depends so highly on sound and jump scares that it wouldn’t be scary at all if you put it on mute? That’s why we are talking about “a quiet place”.
A Quiet Place is a story of a family which is struggling to survive a blind beast with enhanced hearing; so enhanced that slightest sound will result in death from ravenous alien creatures. Hence the tagline of the movie, “If they hear you, they’ll hunt you.”
The movie starts off with eerie silence almost tricking you into thinking there’s something wrong with your sound system. What makes this movie amazing is how everything they convey, they do it without words; all the fear, anxiety and even grief is expressed through their expressions and body language. The movie will pull you into their world making you just as conscious about the sound you’re making as the actors in the movie are. You’ll feel anxious to even breathe or to move in your seat hoping it doesn’t creak. When they say this movie will keep you in the edge of your seat holding tightly, it really does.
Casting at its best
John Krasinski is the last person you’d expect to direct and star in a horror movie since he is well known for his role in the American comedy series, The Office. Starring next to him is his own wife, Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbot which spices things up a bit with their real and noticeable chemistry. Actor-director Krasinski pushed an extra mile to cast a deaf actress, Millicent Simmonds as his onscreen daughter which brought an extra depth to the film as her character Regan Abbot in the movie is also deaf. Noah Jupe who plays Marcus: a fearful son with emotional issues gives justice to his character as well.
The most important part of the movie that a lot of people fail to notice are all the issues of the family which predate the post-apocalyptic monster world. This is a family grieving the loss of a child while simultaneously fighting monsters to protect the other children. The relationship between father and his teenage daughter Regan is as complicated as it gets as she constantly feels rejected. As the story develops, we learn that Evelyn is pregnant which is horrifying as it seems almost impossible to deliver a new born baby without making any sound. While this pregnancy may seem like a reckless and stupid decision, the writers express that it is a sign that the family is still hopeful and trying to find normalcy. Another sign of hope is how the family uses Regan’s inability to hear as an advantage as the whole family communicates in sign language.
The ending was actually pretty brilliant, because this family had zero opportunity for release since their lives had been dictated by absolute terror of these monsters for so many months. They couldn’t yell, they couldn’t scream and even when they lost a family member; they couldn’t even cry. With that ending, it illustrates that they’ve finally found their release.
Initial release: April 2018 (South Korea)
Stars: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds
Director: John Krasinski
IMBD rating: 7.9/10
Story by: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Producers: Michael Bay, Bradley Fuller, Andrew Form
