A Quiet Place review

A QUIET PLACE:

JOHN KRASINSKI DELIVERS ONE HELL OF A CREATURE FEATURE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place

            John Krasinski (The Office, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi) directs and stars in the sci-fi horror film, A Quiet Place. I had low expectations at first when I first saw the trailer, not because of the story or cast, but because of one element, it was being produced by Michael Bay (Bad Boys, The Rock, Transformers franchise) under his Platinum Dunes studio.

            You know, the studio that rebooted every single horror franchise ever made such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13^th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street and gave the Transformers treatment to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, they recently pulled through with the unexpectedly solid, Ouija: Origin of Evil, so I guess anything is possible.

            Well, I can gladly say that A Quiet Place is Platinum Dunes’ best film and one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in recent years. It takes the concept of a basic slasher movie or creature feature and adds new twists to the genre, a sense of mystery, and characters that are actually well-developed and aren’t just there to die, with very little dialogue.

            In 2020, the world has gone into lockdown as mysterious blind extraterrestrial creatures with extremely sensitive hearing attack by sound. To survive, a family of four must never make a sound, even if it’s something as simple as playing with a toy spaceship that makes noise or something shattering.

            The family consisting of husband, Lee Abbott (Krasinski), wife, Evelyn (Emily Blunt-The Young Victoria, Edge of Tomorrow, Sicario), and their children, Regan (Millicent Simmonds-Wonderstruck) and Marcus (Noah Jupe-The Night Manager, Suburbicon, Wonder) have learned to communicate through American Sign Language, adapt to walking barefoot wherever they go, and do their household activities as silent as possible.

            However, when Evelyn becomes pregnant with their next child and the family can’t spend the rest of their lives running and hiding from these monsters, they must discover their weakness and fight back before due date. Because as we all know, babies and silence don’t quite go hand in hand.

            Overall, A Quiet Place is a wickedly good time with plenty of scares and a clever premise to boot that pays homage to films like Tremors, Signs, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Don’t Breathe, and Get Out while still being its own unique movie. You got creatures that act in a similar fashion to the aliens from Signs (Though I’m sure the monsters in this have no problem getting through a pantry door), hunt by sound like the giant worms from Tremors, and most of the movie revolves around people being isolated or hiding like 10 Cloverfield Lane or Don’t Breathe.

            However, this film does something that a lot of scary movies seem to miss the mark on, at least for me, making it about the people, NOT the deaths. A Quiet Place has really good character development despite having little dialogue, the performances by the cast shine through, and you really care about this family and want to see them survive in the end.

            It’s a breath of fresh air to watch a scary flick that doesn’t rely on stock characters and horror movie stereotypes that are so generic, bland, and/or unlikable that they just exist to die. A Quiet Place is that rare scary movie where you don’t root for the monster or killer, you root for the people trying to escape.

            Aside from a few scenes with talking, most of the acting comes from facial expressions, sign language, and actions, and the actors really sell it. They speak so little but manage to communicate so much, and every moment feels natural.

            The film also has a share of social commentary, though it’s not quite as obvious as something like Get Out, but it’s been argued by Krasinski himself that the movie is a metaphor for parenthood and the premise is reminiscent of the 2018 US politics. It’s definitely one of those movies that could spark an engaging and fascinating conversation with others.

            If I had to nitpick something about the film, the ending is a bit anti-climactic, and you’d think all this build-up and terror would lead to a thrilling final act, but just as it gets big the credits start rolling. It isn’t bad, and it doesn’t ruin the movie, but I would have liked to see a more exciting climax than the one we got.

             A Quiet Place is proof that John Krasinski knows how to make a scary flick and hopefully this will lead to more horror movies by him in the future. It’s also proof that Michael Bay should stick to producing for the rest of his career, face it pal, you blew it with the Transformers and you couldn’t even represent World War II properly with Pearl Harbor, stick to producing with other producers by your side, so you can no longer be the Stamp of Death.