Quiet Place, A (United States, 2018)
April 07, 2018
For movies like A Quiet
Place – science fiction-based horror films that aren’t obsessed with
appealing to the Blumhouse demographic – tone and atmosphere are the most
critical production aspects. This is something Ridley Scott understood as far
back as Alien, a film whose influence
on A Quiet Place is evident. By
emphasizing the “quiet” element of the title and thereby amplifying the impact
of even the faintest of sounds, director/co-writer/star John Krasinski puts us
on edge. Silence at times becomes claustrophobic, feeding into the escalating suspense
that fuels the movie’s forceful and effective audience manipulation. Don’t be
fooled by the PG-13 rating – A Quiet Place
has an adult aesthetic and younger viewers may be unprepared for its
unconventional style and unrelenting intensity.
Krasinski’s screenplay (a re-write of a script penned by
Bryan Woods and Scott Beck) uses an economy of images (primarily newspaper
headlines) to establish the backstory. They year is 2020 and we’re informed via
a caption that whatever is happening has been happening for about three months.
The “whatever” turns out to be an alien invasion. Unfriendly extraterrestrials
have attacked and conquered, leaving isolated bands of humans to survive in
near-silence. Since the aliens hunt by sound and apparently have no vision, quietness
is paramount. Any loud noise can bring them, and they attack with such
swiftness and ferocity that neither fighting nor fleeing represents a viable
option.
During the film’s first sequence, we are introduced to the
five-member Abbott family: mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt), dad Lee (John Krasinski),
and their three children – Regan (Millicent Simmonds), who is deaf; Marcus
(Noah Jupe), who is ill; and Beau (Cade Woodward), who is too young to fully
understand the dangers of noisemaking. Barefoot and careful, they creep around
an abandoned drug store, looking for medication to help Marcus. Tragedy strikes
on the way home, however, as Beau inadvertently creates a commotion. He is swiftly
and brutally dispatched by an alien in one of the film’s most daring moments.
A Quiet Place
jumps ahead a year. The pain and grief associated with Beau’s loss have
diminished but aren’t gone. Teenage Regan is exhibiting signs of rebellion. And
Evelyn, pregnant with her fourth child, is approaching her due date. Lee
continues to enhance their home’s security measures, which include a colored-light
warning system, monitors, and a sound-proof underground room. Everything is in
place to protect Evelyn during the delivery and safeguard mother and child
afterward – until fate intervenes to put everyone in danger at a critical time.
Following Ridley Scott’s 1979 template of not overexposing
the aliens, Krasinski mostly avoids long, lingering shots of the creatures (at
least until the climax). We catch fleeting glimpses of them in the woods and as
they creep around inside the house. Their appearance is a cross between H.R. Giger’s
iconic xenomorph and a giant spider. One of the most tense scenes involves a
character in a bathtub. Another white-knuckle moment happens in a silo where
tons of shifting grain, sucking with quicksand-like efficiency, prove more
dangerous than any alien.
The use of American Sign Language allows the characters to
communicate without speaking. Adding a layer to the importance of silence is
the deafness of the oldest Abbott child; several scenes are presented from her perspective
and, for those, Krasinski blots out all sound, bathing the theater in stillness.
(Actress Millicent Simmonds, the girl from the silent-film portions of Wonderstruck, is deaf in real-life,
fulfilling Krasinski’s requirement that Regan be played by a non-hearing
actress.) Marco Beltrami’s musical score is understated, adding slight emphasis
to certain scenes without ruining the carefully controlled sound design and
editing.
A Quiet Place is an expertly made “refrigerator movie.” Although gripping, compelling, and exhausting as it unspools, there are a number of logical inconsistencies that emerge post-screening for those who care to put it under the microscope. This is commonly the case with horror films and even the best of the genre aren’t immune. (Why, oh why, did Jamie Lee Curtis throw away the knife in Halloween?) Narrative hiccups of this sort don’t reduce what Krasinski has achieved here. A Quiet Place is a superb exercise in understated terror that puts to shame “horror” films that rely on jump scares and cheap theatrics.
Quiet Place, A (United States, 2018)
Cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward
Home Release Date: 2018-07-10
Screenplay: Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski
Cinematography: Charlotte Bruus Christensen
Music: Marco Beltrami
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
U.S. Release Date: 2018-04-06
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Disturbing Images)
Genre: Science Fiction/Horror
Subtitles: In ASL and English with subtitles
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Quiet Place Part II, A (2021)
- (There are no more better movies of Millicent Simmonds)
- Wonderstruck (2017)
- (There are no more worst movies of Millicent Simmonds)
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