Watch horror Movies for free with Amazon Prime

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place review
2018
7
Director: 
John Krasinski

SYNOPSIS: 

A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.

REVIEW: 

There are movies that take their time building a mood and movies that pull you right into their carefully crafted worlds pretty much right away. John Krakinski’s A Quiet Place is definitely the latter. The first thing the viewer sees is a barefoot family scavenging for supplies in the middle of an abandoned supermarket. However, they’re doing so completely silently – not exactly average for a family that includes three children. We’re promptly informed via a title card that we’re on “Day 89” of whatever’s going on and with that, our journey into this very quiet world begins.

In addition to directing A Quiet Place, Krakinski also stars in it as family patriarch Lee Abbott. Real-life wife, Emily Blunt co-stars as Lee’s wife Evelyn Abbott. Krakinski also had a hand in penning the script, as it is as a rewrite of a spec script he was given. Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brian Fuller share the production credit.

As the opening sequence establishes quite nicely, Quiet Place’s Abbott family isn’t living in the same familiar world we know and love. They live in a post-apocalyptic version of our own world, an Earth that’s been invaded and overtaken by a blind alien species that hunts using their ultra-keen sense of hearing. Even the slightest sound can easily spell doom for human survivors, hence the preoccupation with silence. A Quiet Place follows the story of the Abbott family as they fight to stay alive.

It’s obvious from the very first minutes of A Quiet Place that the film’s near silence will also provide the foundation for its creativity and suspense. The human beings that still inhabit the now alien-occupied world communicate primarily via gestures and barely heard whispers. The presence of deaf daughter Regan also allows for sign language, but it’s the facial expressions and body language that really speak volumes here. When all is quiet, an audience dials in especially intently to avoid missing anything critical and it’s clear that Krakinski understands this in the masterful way he directs this film.

It might be tempting to assume that the focal point of A Quiet Place would be the aliens, but you’d be very wrong if you did. This is a film that’s all about its human characters. The all-encompassing quietness of the film is something the actors leverage to emote on an entirely new level. Krakinski and Blunt shine as Lee and Evelyn to be sure. However, the incredible deaf actress Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) positively knocks it out of the park as Regan while young Noah Jupe (Suburbicon) shines as her brother, Marcus Abbott. Their heartfelt performances are interspersed with full-on action sequences that keep this film moving right along.

For a movie that’s as stripped down and minimal as A Quiet Place really is, this is a film that speaks volumes and is an absolute masterpiece for it. This is definitely not one you’ll want to miss, especially if you’re a fan of other genre films that leverage the power and heaviness of silence and dread including Hush, It Comes at Night and Hereditary.

SIMILAR MOVIES REVIEWS

OTHER MOVIES REVIEWS

Don't Look Now

1973

A suggestive and deeply layered reinterpretation of a universal fairy tale like Little Red Riding Hood, which finds in its protagonists, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, two extraordinary interpreters. However, the director eludes any predefined scheme, escapes conventions and leads the viewer on a labyrinthine, almost subliminal path. What on the surface seems like a parapsychological horror, complete with a hunt for a serial killer, actually turns out to be a work of extraordinary complexity: an investigation into the reworking of grief within a couple, into the... Read More

Magic

1978

A disturbing psychological thriller that mixes horror and tension, with a sinister puppet and a young Anthony Hopkins in one of his most intense performances. To get into the role, the British actor immersed himself in the study of ventriloquism techniques, giving his character a tormented and vulnerable depth. His hypnotic gaze and his ability to convey complex emotions make the performance unforgettable. Behind the camera, Richard Attenborough orchestrates the story with almost surgical precision, enhancing every detail and giving the story an unusual realism for the... Read More

Hush... Hush, sweet Charlotte

1964

It was supposed to be the natural sequel to the cult film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", but Joan Crawford backed out, and Robert Aldrich, also a producer, chose Olivia de Havilland as a replacement, giving her a role far from her usual "women in distress". Once again based on a novel by Henry Farrell, the film does not reach the originality and impact of its predecessor, but it remains one of the best products born in the wake of that success. Not only for the remarkable performance of Bette Davis but also for the intricate plot, centered on the psychological duel... Read More

Les Yeux sans visage

1960

Based on the novel of the same name by Jean Redon, this little gem that lasts just over an hour is a fundamental film for the development of modern horror, among all it has inspired John Carpenter's "halloween". The film is poetic but also damn cruel in its elegant black and white, the scene of the surgical operation anticipates today's extreme cinema by a long way, in fact the critics of the time called it vile and gruesome... But the film is above all a horror with strong psychological elements. At the center of the story are the sense of guilt, an unhealthy gratitude... Read More

Lord of Misrule

2023

Bland horror that mixes paganism, thriller and folklore of British popular traditions. The story recalls the 1973 film "The Wicker Man" with Christopher Lee but is much less exciting, due to a watered down script and a perhaps improvised direction even if it must be said that the real and the supernatural mix in an interesting crossover and the atmosphere is fascinating, especially the sequences in the woods during a lunar eclipse. Ultimately a disappointing film but one that is worth watching.