Writing, directing, and starring in a film is no easy feat, but John Krasinski does an impressive job of accomplishing this in A Quiet Place (2018). The film follows a family of five that is forced to live quietly as they are constantly hiding from creatures that hunt loud noises. The film’s strong concept makes for some creative and unique moments I have not seen on the big screen before. One of the aspects of the film that I found extremely captivating was the use of silence. Moments where the score was completely cut out of the scene were the moments I felt that I was most glued to the screen. These silent moments, followed by some loud noises and even some subtle noises, made hearing the loud noises insanely impactful. That being said, I would recommend filling up on snacks before you go into this movie because you won’t want your ears to be distracted.
There is some pretty enjoyable attention to detail in this film, including newspaper headlines that hint at what exactly happened to the rest of society as well as some explaining of the creatures’ powers. The props and set design that showcase the way the characters reduce the amount of noise they make help place the movie in the “real” world: cloth for monopoly pieces, sand for walking, lights for communication, and fireworks for distracting the creatures.
There are some inconsistencies that kind of broke my suspension of disbelief, though. For a film that centers around utilizing silence to its advantage and having the characters communicate almost exclusively through sign language, I thought the actual spoken dialogue could have been a bit more valuable and thoughtful as opposed to its cheesy nature. On the subject of “cheesy,” some of the jump scares in this film took advantage of the suspense that was created only to lead to something pointless, like a hand hitting a window. And yes, I know this is a very popular trope in horror movies and it usually elicits some kind of emotional response from audiences (like a jump, hence the name), but I just feel like for this specific film and its otherwise fantastic use of audio and lack thereof, building suspense through sound only to, at times, have it lead to nothing is disappointing. It also seems like there were some inconsistencies with the sensitivity of the creatures’ hearing abilities as well as their overall strength, speed, and powers. Another thing that was inconsistent and a bit unbelievable was how conveniently calm and quiet the newborn baby was at times. There were also a couple of shots and moments in the film that were kind of tacky and I think could have been done without.
Of course, just because I had some things to criticize in this film does not mean I did not enjoy it. Although I will not necessarily go out of my way to watch other horror movies, I was intrigued and subsequently satisfied by A Quiet Place as I’m sure you will be as well!
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