A Conventional take on the Unconventional

Rating: 7/10 (11 April 2018)

In horror cinema nowadays, the traditions of slasher flicks and torture films have been replaced. Now, it's all about high concept and gimmicks that sell the films. A simple idea that grabs the intrigue of an audience member that is up to the director to decide whether it is a worth one to stretch into a 90+ minute film. In that sense, we are getting more experimental horror films than ever before in this modern age of cinema, especially with companies like Blumhouse and A24 rolling the dice on small budget, high-concept films.
For the film 'A Quiet Place', the gimmick is simply silence...and I cannot lie, if this is an indicator of where mainstream horror is heading, the genre may not be as far-gone as so many people deemed it only a few short years ago.
'A Quiet Place' is a horror film with a concept so simple yet so fascinating; antagonists who have incredible hearing can only be stifled by not making any loud noises whatsoever. Thus, a majority of this briskly-paced 90 minute film is executed in near-silence. Characters speak through sign language. Acting is mostly done through movement and expression. Everything is done subtly and without a need to pander or 'dumb it down', for the most part.
Admittingly, I expected this effect and technique to be broken almost immediately, but what I received was commitment to this concept. With a few rare exceptions, the film owns the advantages and disadvantages this decision comes with, and makes for an intriguing theatre experience as you sit in a multiplex theatre with crowds of others, nervously pinned to your seat in the highest of high tension scenes. In THIS space, someone can hear you munch popcorn.
What also impresses me regarding this film is its use of sound design, perhaps obviously enough. A particular choice is made for one character that creates for an interesting sequence or two regarding sound, which were highlights for this film when it came to its tension scenes.
That said, this film isn't without faults, and pretty glaring ones at that. At multiple points, the film falls into the typical genre pitfalls of cliche and logic holes. A certain 'rule' of the world they establish actually threatened to wreck my suspension of disbelief at one point, though I stuck with the film simply because it was so fascinating in what it aimed to achieve. Even so, various scenes feel like they were producer-mandated and had fingerprints of people who "know what a horror movie should be like". It reeks of cliche at times, which is a shame considering how unconventional the initial concept was and how much open space it had to do some intriguing things.
Along with these leaps of logic and simply dumb things I noticed while watching it, the sheer feeling of "polish" throughout the film was unfortunately hard to miss. Seeing as this was handled by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company, it was unfortunate to see various scenes lost in their feeling of grit once I looked in the back and started to realize how much the scene looked like a SET and not an environment that was lived-in.
I feel, if this screenplay and concept was handled by someone like Trey Edward Schultz ("It Comes At Night", one of my favorites of 2017) and a studio like A24 or Blumhouse, this could have been a landmark film in the horror genre. This could have received the gritty, unrelenting and unique direction such a concept needs to thrive. Instead, what we get is a polished version of an idea that so desperately wants to be unleashed in full execution. Instead, we get the studio-mandated version, which isn't BAD by any means...but not as great as it should have been. The phrase "A conventional take on the unconventional" continues to reverb in my mind, and I think this describes the film perfectly.
All of that said, I cannot say this film does not excel in many regards. The concept is something we haven't seen executed on this kind of scale in recent memory, the performances all suit the film perfectly, the sound design is top-notch, the world-building is actually quite excellent and give us a believable method to how this family lives in a world where no one can make a sound, and some scenes are actually quite proficient at piling-on tension.
Amidst genre pitfalls and cliches, 'A Quiet Place' manages to be a good time at the theatre that was pleasantly self-contained and without too much silliness. For a 90 minute gauntlet of horror and suspense with an interesting premise, I think much of the current cinemas producing schlock horror could learn a thing or two from the execution of this film. Considering this film's incredible first weekend take, I think audiences are interested in cool concepts for a horror film like this as well.
If silence is indeed golden, this film isn't quite 4 karat, but it most certainly is up there...