A Quiet Place is a unique and interesting film. We seldom get films like it anymore. In many ways, it’s a silent movie. It’s a film that relies on visuals to tell its story and develop its characters. This makes the film visually engaging but it also has its limits, and as someone accustomed to modern cinematic techniques, it can be frustrating.
The story of A Quiet Place is pretty straightforward. Creatures or Monsters have arrived on Earth, they’re highly sensitive to sound and they can track down and kill anything that makes a sound, no matter how slight. The film focuses on a family, trying to survive after the creatures have seemingly killed the majority of humanity.
It’s basically a zombie movie mixed in with an alien invasion. Albeit it’s one that’s way more focused on the people trying to cope after the takeover, rather than trying to fight the creatures.
By putting an emphasis on the characters, their motives and feelings, A Quiet Place is engaging and interesting at all times. We learn the basics of each character, what drives them and their relationships. However, because the film lacks dialogue, the characters can only be developed to a certain degree. We never find out the names of the characters, their backstories or anything truly personal or interesting about them. It’s a little disappointing.
The film mixes the action and horror genres quite effectively. There are moments of tension and there are moments of fear. The need to be quiet is excellently utilised because it forces you to relate to and identify with every action and potential consequence. For example, there’s a moment where a dangerous nail on a step is pointed out, and the pregnancy of Emily Blunt’s character is also portrayed well in this regard.
The silent nature of the film is both the best and worst thing about it. It’s good because it highlights the characters and their performances. It’s bad because the score is the one thing you constantly hear, but it isn’t all that interesting or unique. There are motifs that reminded me of the score in The Handmaid’s Tale, and some elements that reminded me a little of Hans Zimmer’s work.
The most frustrating thing about the silent nature of the film is that it constantly feels like little to nothing is happening, even though that’s not always the case. This is a film where you have to pay attention. It’s a film that shows you it’s story, rather than tells you a story. It’s good, old fashioned cinema at its best. Sadly, this style of filmmaking won’t appeal to many, mainstream audiences who are too familiar with modern filmmaking ways.
A Quiet Place is a good, formidable thriller. It features engaging characters, a simple story and director John Krasinski does a great job at building tension and creating horror. The silent nature of it won’t please everyone, it can come across as tedious and slow and demanding, but the film is short and enjoyable if you can overlook that.
Thoughts by Grant 