Jim really knocked this one out of the park, huh?
A Quiet Place is a thriller/horror movie starring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds about a family desperately trying to survive in a world where blind creatures that hunt by sound have invaded and even the slightest, tiniest sound will give them away. To that end, the family takes every precaution to make as little noise as possible as they go about their daily business of simply surviving.
I feel that terms like “on the edge of your seat” or “nerve-wracking” tend to get overused when describing movies, but they’re both 100% apt with A Quiet Place. Every scene is dripping with atmosphere and suspense as the family desperately tries to stay silent during supply runs or just doing simple tasks around the house like laundry or eating dinner. The film feels like one of those silence experiments combined with the survivalist/post-apocalyptic themes and beats we’ve seen in things like The Walking Dead. The forced silence aspect really elevates this above the rest, with even the slightest noise filling the audience with dread. It’s a great formula for incredible stressful moments and tense viewing and Krasinski's directing showcases it all brilliantly.
The cast is small, but they all pull off their roles very well. Krasinski and Blunt have great chemistry together as the mother and father of the family (no surprise there, given that the actors are married in real life) and Millicent Simmonds turns in a solid performance as their deaf daughter Regan (the actress being deaf in real life, as well). The character/actress being deaf has a really relevant role in the film and its handled very well, leading to some of the more tense scenes in the movie. It’s easy to understand why Krasinski was very insistent on casting a deaf actress for this role and it paid off for sure.
My only minor nitpick is with the creatures themselves. The threat of what they are and how they operate is truly chilling, but they’re not the most unique looking things. Maybe it’s just a side effect of seeing so many movies and shows and playing so many games in this genre, but if you’ve seen things like Resident Evil or The Last of Us, you won’t be seeing anything new.
However, the end result is a very unique and interesting movie-going experience and I actually recommend seeing this in theatres if you can. I know, you’re thinking what I thought: “Everyone will be too loud in the theatre, it’ll ruin it!”. But with the right crowd that observes basic movie-going etiquette, it’s pretty fun. Every cough or shifting-around in a chair became part of the experience as any and all sounds make you tense up. I’ll remember this one for sure.
Overall, A Quiet Place is one of the best horror/suspense movies to come out in years and I believe it’ll take its place among the 2010’s best like Get Out and Don’t Breathe. I’m really interested to see where John Krasinski’s directing future takes him.
More to come!
O.N.