A Quiet Place

A theme among the films that I'm reviewing while I'm social distancing is that a lot of them are films and TV shows that were pretty big over the last year or so, but I didn't see them for one reason or another. With a movie like A Quiet Place, it was a combination of I'm not a huge horror movie fan unless I force myself into it, AND there was a hype around that film that I sometimes instinctively don't want to get wrapped up in.

Unfortunately, I waited far too long and ended up getting parts of the movie spoiled for me. I knew a lot of the premise of the film as well as an idea of the way it was executed, but I didn't see it in action, and boy did this movie not disappoint.

A Quiet Place follows the story of a family a year into what seems like an alien invasion of monsters that hunts its prey through the sense of sound. Its not totally clear what happened, but context clues and the fact that society has essentially ended gives you a fascinating open ended mystery into the actual event.

The Abbott family is made up of Lee (played by John Krasinski), his wife Evelyn (played by Emily Blunt), and their children: their deaf daughter Reagan (played by Millicent Simmonds, who was actively sought after for the role because she was deaf), Marcus (played by Noah Jupe), and their youngest Beau (played by Cade Woodward). A side note worth mentioning is that I at no point actually knew these characters names throughout the film. I only knew them because I looked it up in preparation to write this, and yet I never thought about that once while watching the film.

A Quiet Place distinguishes itself from other post-apocalyptic films, not only by the unique monster that they created for the plot, but the protagonists they chose to follow. Yeah, shows like The Walking Dead follow families, but none of them had the family be full of hurdles that makes the threat more real. Reagan is deaf so she can't hear when the monsters are around, they make it clear Marcus has some kind of asthma or an ailment. And of course, throughout the majority of the movie, Evelyn is pregnant.

The other really fascinating part of the film is seeing this family having adapted to the apocalypse and living a new normal in a world where they can't make a sound.

All of them know sign language, they do chores silently, they paint certain boards in their house that they know won't squeak. It just feels like a lived in world that not only was interesting, but allowed you to get to know the characters in how they dealt with problems and survived with one another.

Once again, I find myself reviewing a "horror" film that is not really a horror film. I think there were actually more jump scares in this movie than Doctor Sleep, but that didn't really take away from the fact that this is more of a suspenseful drama than a straight up horror film and if John Krasinski follows in the same footsteps as Mike Flanagan by creating these horror films that focus more on relationships and drama, I think he's got a really bright future as a director. Like Doctor Sleep, if you're looking for a legitimate horror movie that isn't going to make you cry, A Quiet Place isn't the movie for you.

What I will say is that the movie utilizes suspense very well. For the best effect, watch the movie in as much silence as you can handle because with the lack of dialogue, your hearing just heightens and the movie is super suspenseful.

The movie is also really well acted. I think I had been distracted by the bad writing of Jack Ryan to start thinking that maybe John Krasinski just isn't that great of an actor, but this movie made me do a 180 on that idea. Him and Blunt obviously bring it, but the kids are really good too. And it all happens with very little dialogue throughout the film.

What's more, its a pretty quick movie. I think I might say I could have gone for a more, but at the same time, the story is so concise and it almost feels like a short film rather than a feature length film. In the 90 minutes, we get pretty attached to this family and I can't wait to see what Krasinski does with the second, whenever it finally comes out.

The closest thing to a criticism would be the creature design of the monsters. Without giving too much away, they do look like a familiar monster that happened to be in a popular TV show on Netflix. But even that criticism isn't really fair because their mechanics and relying on sound is unique in its own way.

I think my worry is that the sequel just won't be as solid just based on the direction they head it. I haven't watched any full trailers but I've heard enough about it in passing that I could see a very distinct possibility of it not being as good. This movie is so tight and focused on this family that I'd be a little worried when they start adding more ingredients to the recipe.

But the difference is, I will be seeing the next one in theaters because I am invested now. I wish I could say more but I don't want to get into spoilers and the more you don't know about this film, the more fun the execution is.

I highly recommend this movie even if you're not a horror fan because it really is done beautifully, acting immensely well, and is a solid film that I definitely took too long to finally check out.

But those are my thoughts on A Quiet Place. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!