A Quiet Place (2018)

Holy crap, this movie was AMAZING! I was not expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. This is only the third night of my month of movie monographs (yeah, that was a stretch, I know) and I can already, whole heartedly, recommend this one if you’re looking for something to get your heart pounding on October 31st.

No excessive gore, no torture, no drugs, nudity, protracted fight scenes or gross out imagery. This movie is all about atmosphere and sheer suspense.

Hey, it’s Jim from The Office again! No seriously, John Krasinski directed and stars in this movie along with his real life wife Emily Blunt. That’s why I dismissed this movie when I first heard about it. A guy best known for almost a decade in a comedic role? That same actor directing? A movie where “Everyone has to be quiet! Ooooooh, spooky!” Blah. Pass.

Damn. Do NOT judge a book by it’s cover and don’t dismiss an actor just because of one role you’ve seen them in. The acting is phenomenal. Way better than you expect from a thriller like this, especially when you consider how minimal the dialog is. The actors have to convey almost everything to the audience with just facial expressions and body language.

“Never work with animals or children” W.C. Fields said, but Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe are perfect in this movie, easily holding their own in scenes with Krasinski or Blunt.

You know the parts in horror movies where people are hiding from the monster trying to kill them? You know how it gets quiet and suspenseful? That’s how much of the movie feels. It’s intense and the movie also goes for a “show, don’t tell” means of introducing the viewer to this world. There are no long exposition scenes, you are left to figure things out by yourself, from watching what people do, and the things that are in their environment.

They actually do way less world building and character development in A Quiet Place than probably any other movie I’ve seen. No explanation as to where the monsters came from, why the world is the way it is, what these peoples background are. Are they even all biologically related, or are they just a small group of survivors who have wound up together and are now a family? You don’t even get anyones NAMES until the credits roll. None of that matters though. It is irrelevant to the story you are watching and you care about these people anyway. The film just goes “This is the world they live in, these are the rules, now watch what happens.”

The suspension of disbelief is solid. Once you buy into the creatures and that this is how things are now, everything is believable. There aren’t any crazy action scenes where people survive things that are impossible, no super human feats, no monster suddenly decides to slow down and toy with the victim to give them time to escape. Everything happens organically and the characters are smart. You can believe they’ve lasted as long as they have because they’ve planned for things, they’ve thought stuff through and come up with ways to stay alive.

Minor spoiler. Emily Blunts character is obviously pregnant, and you’re thinking to yourself “Okay, maybe, maybe she can get through labour without making any noise, but how do you keep a newborn quiet? They cry a lot, how stupid are you to get pregnant in a world like this?” and then they show you. I don’t know how long Bryan Woods and Scott Beck spent working on the story, but it must have been a while because it gives the impression of a well polished script that people had gone over and over removing any rough spots they found.

While looking up names and dates on IMDB, I saw that there is a sequel in the works. I’m excited to see what happens next, especially since it seems to be the same people involved, but I’ll admit I would have been content if this had been a one off movie. It’s perfect as is.