Movie Review: A Quiet Place
Rating: 3 Stars
I was perusing the Red Box today and I had a choice to make. I was intrigued by the hype around A Quiet Place, but Red Sparrow is a spy movie where Jennifer Lawrence gets naked. This should’ve been an easy choice for me since I rarely ever watch horror films. I don’t find enjoyment in being scared. I can bear with thrillers like The Sixth Sense or The Shining or Split. But monsters that jump out of rows of cornfields? Not my thing.
So, of course, I chose A Quiet Place. It’s time I step up to the challenge. For the most part, John Krasinski’s directorial debut didn’t disappoint.
Now just because I dislike horror movies in general, does not mean I can’t appreciate the specific legwork that goes into the craft. My dilemma lies mostly with the incessant use of the jump scare. Despite being keenly aware that most of them are telegraphed, the loud orchestral jabs paired with a sudden jerk of movement onscreen gets me every time without fail.
A Quiet Place has you by the balls in terms of jump scare anticipation. With so much of the film being silent, the film has you at its mercy as to how it can get you to react. Luckily for my heart rate, A Quiet Place relied mostly on situational survival action rather than monsters jumping out of every corner and crevasse.
A Quite Place fondly reminded me of another movie I liked, The Shallows. The similarities being that both films pit their characters in tight situations where only wit and clever thinking will keep our protagonists alive. It’s a satisfying feeling when the protagonist you’re rooting for outsmarts the vicious monster. Though if A Quite Place is a spiritual successor to any film, it’s obviously Alien.
A Quiet Place opens with silence. Text says Day 84, assumedly the 84th day into monsters attacking a dystopian Earth. Were the monsters the cause of the fall of modern society? While this question doesn’t particularly matter, it is a fleeting thought that these alien creatures have laid waste to an entire town and only one family survived. A news clipping says the monsters are indestructible, but we later learn a swift shotgun blast can dispose of them.
The monsters, which are strikingly similar to Geiger’s Alien in physical appearance, are blind. They use hyper-sensitive hearing to track down their enemies. So while they’re not indestructible, shooting them is a terrible idea. We’re introduced to them fairly early.
At the outset, we meet the Abbott family. There’s a father (John Krasinski), his wife (Emily Blunt), and three children. IMDB lists names but I’m fairly certain the names aren’t spoken in the film. The family speaks sign language to each other. The youngest son takes a toy spaceship with him, which he sets off causing a monster to have him for lunch… and title screen. Hell of a way to start a film.
The film jumps almost a year ahead and the father and wife are about to have a child. I can’t help but not mention this is a giant gaping plothole that anyone could take several stabs into. The first issue being why would the couple have a child knowing that child labor causes a woman to scream in agony. Secondly, babies make a lot of noise. There is some forethought to address each issue but they’re not foolproof.
The plot isn’t the strong suit of A Quiet Place, but the acting and cinematography more than make up for it. The pacing of the film is another strong point. At a crisp 90 minutes, A Quite Place doesn’t linger or rest on its laurels. There’s no unnecessary exposition or wrap-up epilogue.
Krasinski, Blunt, and the kids all deliver. Krasinski is the heroic survivalist father. Blunt the caring resourceful mother. The young boy is scared and unsure. The young girl has regrets and anguish. Their personalities shine despite most of the dialogue coming through subtitles translating their sign language. The actors cast meaningful expressions with such grace and poise. The camera stays close and the lighting is superb.
And here I am saving the best part for last. The sound design. For a movie called, A Quiet Place, based on monsters who use hearing, sound is the foundation this film is built on. The challenge the film faces is how and when to use sound whether it be environmental or orchestral. My only criticism sound wise was that I thought the environmental sounds were too quiet. Characters would be running without any sound. Unless the Abbott family all became ninjas during the apocalypse, there’s typically some audible footsteps sounds when running on hard ground.
I appreciated the lengths in which the Abbott family went to be as quiet in every activity as possible. Playing Monopoly by rolling the dice on carpet. Not using the metal figures to move across the board but rather a Doritos chip. The family doesn’t use silverware or plates at dinner. The washing machine and drier can’t be used. You get the idea.
I have one final bone to pick with A Quiet Place. There’s one scene where we meet the only character not from the Abbott family. An old man appears in the woods. An old woman is near him, dead. His wife one would guess? The man stares at the father and his son, and for no reason at all, screams. I’m not sure what Krasinski is trying to get across in this scene. Back to the plothole complaints, how did this old man survive this long only to get himself killed? To the film’s credit, this is the only wasted scene in the film.
A Quiet Place is anchored by the strong performance of Krasinski who pulls triple duty as star protagonist, writer, and director. Krasinski’s collaborators for the screenplay are Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. Beck and Wood’s are horror writing collaborators whose last feature effort, Nightlight, doesn’t have much in the way of favorable reviews. It will be a testament to Krasinski if Woods and Beck can’t succeed without him.
