A SILENT SUSPENCE

Rating: 9/10 (31 March 2018)

A family of four is living in the middle of nowhere. Night and day they are being hunted by monsters that react to sound. The family learned how to adapt, communicating by sign language and living quietly, but one night all precautions fly out of the window and all hell breaks loose.
If Hitchcock was alive today he could have made THE QUIET PLACE. Director John Krasinsky has never made a horror movie before. As a director there are only three previous credits to his name, including two comedies I had never heard of, plus a few episodes of the American version of THE OFFICE. Sometimes comedy makes a horror movie better, but there are no jokes in A QUIET PLACE. As soon as we are introduced to the family a sense of doom hangs thick in the air and as 50 percent of the cast are children the stakes are raised pretty high from the start. Our protagonists are being hunted down by monsters, but their origins are surrounded by mystery. Don't expect a back story or detailed explanation. What's important is the situation at hand. When things go terribly wrong, how will our characters survive?
The psychological element is played simply and effectively, the set pieces come one after another, in different locations of the farmland where the characters live, one situation is more unsettling than the other. The appearances of monsters is cleverly played out, they are always just one glance away and for most of the film you cannot see them up close. When the creatures are finally revealed they are eerie and disturbing. As a horror fan I have seen it all, but these vicious buggers have their own wicked personality. They are creepily spectacular and fun to watch.
I could call A QUIET PLACE a family horror movie, keeping its cards close to its chest as the story unfolds bit by bit, giving each character a mini story ark it is a dark fairy tale that keeps gore to minimum and suspense to the max. The plot still does not forget family values - united any monster can be conquered. It is also an honest and surprisingly moving film.
The final shot put a big grin on my face. Most importantly A QUIET PLACE is a badass.