(3.5 / 4)
Upon initial glance, A Quiet Place seems mundanely familiar and it would be understandable why a viewer might relegate the film as a story they have seen countless times before. In the last few years alone films like The Witch, Don’t Breath, and last year’s It Comes at Night have had similar features to A Quiet Place, whether it be the familial struggle in the wilderness or being forced to remain quiet in order to evade a dangerous force. The horror genre is indeed a crowded category and it is understandable why many might believe it to be devoid of original ideas, but A Quiet Place demonstrates that this is not the case. The film, which marks John Krasinski’s first directorial picture with a major studio, maximizes its clever setting and well-acted characters to deliver a taut thriller that breaks many horror conventions leading the viewer to never be confident of where the film will go next.
The premise of A Quiet Place is straightforward as it follows the Abbott family composed of patriarch Lee (John Krasinski), his pregnant wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt), and their children Marcus, Beau, and deaf daughter Regan as they navigate through a post-apocalyptic world and work to live a harmonious life on their farm. It is revealed that due to an undisclosed threat, the family must operate in complete silence and communicate via sign language in order to avoid drawing attention from this threat and face imminent danger. As the Abbotts deal with an internal strife as well as the impending delivery of Evelyn’s child, the family’s ability to remain silent is tested as uttering even a single sound could mean the sudden end of their lives. There is obviously more to the story, but to give any more than this brief synopsis away would spoil too much of what makes A Quiet Place a joy to watch.
One of the film’s greatest assets is the unique premise that writers Brian Woods, Scott Beck, and John Krasinski have crafted, which is optimal for delivering scares and racketing up the horror. Additionally, the way in which the film thrusts the viewer into day 90 of the life of this family without any explanation as to the cause of their dystopian environment is brilliant as well, as it leaves the viewer disoriented, adding another layer to the terror that is experienced. The Abbott family’s only daughter, Regan, being deaf is also a clever way of creating unique situations that are conducive to generating dread, while also being thematically relevant to the film as a whole.
Krasinski adeptly manages to wring as much tension from each scene as possible and does not squander the genius setting the film establishes. I was surprised by many of the creative setups of the film that would not have been possible in other horror films. I can’t think of many other movies that were able to create large degrees of anxiety and panic from a seemingly innocuous object like a sharp nail being revealed on a staircase. Krasinski also wisely keeps the story concise and simple, which means that the plot never strays from focusing on the Abbott family, with the movie diverging only once when flirting with the idea of there being other survivors in this world. Other films may have faltered and spent unnecessary time divulging why the events are occurring and having an overabundance of characters to develop, but A Quiet Place wisely does not go this route, which results in a more intimate glimpse into the survival tactics of the Abbott family.
The musical score composed by Marco Beltrami also deserves mention as the music was essential in conveying the emotions of the characters throughout the film. Due to the film being almost completely devoid of dialogue, the score of the film was vital to many portions of the film, and Beltrami definitely delivered on that front. It may have been tempting to present the film without any background music to make the terrifying silence even more salient, however, this could have led to the events seeming dull and causing the audience to be clueless as to the mindset of the characters.
In addition to the score, the impressive acting on display is another key component for the audience’s ability to bond with the family. Krasinski’s arguably most well-known role in The Office as Jim Halpert has already demonstrated his ability to convey a multitude of emotions with merely his facial expressions, however, it is fascinating how he employs a similar technique, but is now able to arouse terror instead of humor. Emily Blunt also turns in a terrific performance as she seamlessly conveys the emotional gamut of fear, pain, compassion, and defiance all without uttering a single word for most of her scenes. The film lives and dies based upon whether the audience connects with the protagonists and thanks to the combo of a great score and strong acting A Quiet Place succeeds in making the audience invested in the fate of the Abbott family.
My favorite aspect of A Quiet Place is in how the film fearlessly violated a slew of long-established horror tropes. Many of the film’s most gruesome sequences occur during daytime, which is a welcome departure from other films in which the grisly events are always reserved for the evening. In this vein the film is also not above making some bold storytelling choices, which I would rather not divulge as it would give away some of the film’s best moments away. I will only say that the bold choices pay off as they effectively raise the stakes and manage to make the narrative unpredictable, which is not an easy task for a story featuring only a handful of characters and a limited setting. Additionally, the film manages to be effectively chilling without resorting to gratuitous gore or ineffective jump scares. The film instead utilizes intelligent setups that cause the scares to never feel as though they are unearned, but are instead a natural byproduct of the silent world that is being depicted.
Although the film executes almost everything it sets out to accomplish flawlessly my main gripe is with the abrupt revelation of the threatening force in the story during the first act. The trailer for the film seemed to make a point to keep the threat the family is fighting against hidden, so I was disappointed to quickly discover the nature of this menace. For a film that improved upon many long-standing horror movie rules, I can’t understand why this rule was broken as I believe the premise would have been even more horrifying had the audience been unaware of what the protagonists were hiding from for a large portion of the film. Perhaps this creative choice was made as a means of having the audience fully focused on the survival of the Abbott family rather than the mystique of the threatening force, but regardless this mystery was the aspect of the story I was most intrigued by so it was disappointing to have it end so early.
Another minor gripe I have with the film is that while the simplicity of the tale enabled it to not become askew with what the focus of the story was, by the time the film ended I felt as though I was disappointed that my time in this world was over. The film may have benefitted from a slightly longer runtime, however maybe this is in fact a strength of the film as it left me wanting more rather than eager for the story to conclude. These criticisms are minor and the unique premise and first-class acting make A Quiet Place one of the more memorable horror films in recent years.
As an aside, I suggest that anyone who hasn’t seen the trailers for the film try to avoid them if possible. As is progressively becoming the norm with movies today, many of the film’s best moments are on display during the trailer, which in turn causes many of these scenes to become dulled once they play out during the film. A Quiet Place is a fantastically fresh take on the familiar post-apocalyptic horror subgenre that any horror fan will enjoy, so it’s best to view the movie cold if possible in order to best savor each chilling moment.
