By Erik Jimenez
I feel that it is clear to many horror movie fans that it is quite a time to be alive. From “Get Out” and “IT” to “Split” and “10 Cloverfield Lane,” the one common element they all share is that they are smart, high quality productions, that are simultaneously impressive and highly entertaining. And Actor John Krasinski’s (“The Office,” “13 Hours”) directorial debut “A Quiet Place” deserves to stand alongside them.
Taking place in the near future, the film has a rather simple story of a family surviving an Earth that is overrun by (I think alien) creatures that are sightless, predatory, and have extremely sensitive hearing which they use to hunt humans and other prey. The father is played by Krasinski, the mother is played by Emily Blunt. They have two kids (Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) with a third on the way and approaching rather soon.
The film displays essentially a day in the life of a family living in a horrible situation and due to the fact that they are silent (they use sign language to communicate, unless they are near loud noises or in a sound-proof room) there is very little development between any of them.
But that is clearly not the purpose of the film. This movie wants to terrify you and it does so by using sound mixing and sound editing to a spectacular degree. Since there is very little spoken dialogue in the film, whenever there is sound it is highly noticeable. And the consequences for making sound in this world are well established, as practically every single time a “loud” noise the creatures feel like they appear almost immediately afterwards.
Though the film has a slow start for the first half, by the end you realize that all of that was important because a lot of the elements that were set off pay off later. And sometimes not in a good way. The slow quiet first half of the film is there to prepare you for the rollercoaster of terror that is the second half of “A Quiet Place.”
This film is also well-done in the way it immerses you in its world. If the characters are somewhat blank slates, that’s only because Krasinski and the writers want you to play self-insert and make you ask “Can I be able to stay this quiet?” or “How would I protect my family in a situation like this?”
And another big reason why the film is legitimately terrifying is because the creatures in the film are some of the most well designed and well executed I’ve seen on the big screen in a while. Not only are they really compelling to see in motion and incredibly smart (or at least seemingly smart) but also well-realized through great VFX. The film cost only about 15 million to make and while the rest of the film certainly doesn’t look bad, it’s clear that a good amount of that budget went to the creature effects.
I hope John Krasinski gets more work after this film. It’s too good to stop from here. I genuinely look forward to what he does next either as Writer, Director, or even Acting. He is clearly a talented individual whose got other talents besides being extremely funny. In “A Quiet Place” he has made a perfectly constructed magic trick of a movie, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a suspenseful horrifying 90 minutes at the cinema.
Photo retrieved by Flickr.
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