The Horror Show
A Quiet Place
by John Krasinski
A Quiet Place has had some enormous buzz and probably been one of the most talked-about horror films of 2018 so far, and rightfully so. John Krasinski’s horror debut works well and builds constant tension while intertwining an appropriate amount of family drama. Apocalyptic horror plus aliens equals a film I’m nine times out of ten going to love, and this movie did not disappoint. I don’t want to spoil anything major so don’t worry about reading ahead if you have yet to see this film.
The movie begins almost two months after an alien invasion and a family is scavenging for supplies at an abandoned store. Silence is golden in this world where the enemy preys on its victims using only sound, and to the family’s dismay, someone breaks the golden rule early on. As you can imagine, nothing good can come of that. We then cut to well over a year later and the family has taken up residence in an old farmhouse. They’ve done well for themselves, setting up safe surroundings, stringing up lights not just for their intended purpose, but as a means of communication. Sand is strewn about on footpaths for necessary silent footsteps and luckily for our cast of characters, they all know sign language as one of the children is deaf, so they can interact with one another with ease. It seems this family has thought of everything and I have to give credit to the writers for really spending time on the small details that are necessary to the characters’ survival from start to finish.
The aliens looked amazing when we finally got to see them up close and personal. They were ugly, scary, and dangerous, just how they should be. In a film with barely any dialogue, there wasn’t a moment to be bored. I was nervous that A Quiet Place would be a bit too quiet, but the score was brilliant and fit perfectly with every scene. It was a wonderful theater experience as well, it was as if the audience was too nervous to even breathe for fear that it might ruin another moviegoer’s experience.
If I had to choose one thing that I didn’t like about the film, it would be that you didn’t get to see any of the outside world. Of course, this film was about this specific group of people surviving out in the countryside, but sometimes in apocalyptic horror you just want to watch the world burn. The invasion itself is shrouded in mystery and I just wanted to know more about what happened prior to this family tip-toing around in the woods. The only glimpse we’re given are brief shots of various newspaper clippings hung around the basement.
John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, married in real life, obviously have wonderful on-screen chemistry and the child actors were fantastic in their roles. I think as a whole, the unnamed family in the film really worked for me and there was a bittersweetness to their story that made me root for them. Often times in horror films family style storytelling tends to be on the corny side, but in this film it was executed well.
Overall a perfect blend of drama, horror, sci-fi, and thriller, A Quiet Place is definitely going on my must-see for 2018 list.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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