A Quiet Place

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2018)

I first saw the poster for this movie and had my guesses what the title would mean, then I saw the teaser trailer, and my guesses were confirmed with the words "If they hear you, they hunt you", I was looking forward to this scary movie. Basically in the year 2020, most of humanity has been wiped out by a species of blind alien creatures with incredible hearing ability, which they use to hunt their prey. The Abbott family, husband (John Krasinski, also directing, and Blunt's real-life husband), wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt), sons Marcus (Noah Jupe) and Beau (Cade Woodward), and deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), survive by scavenging for supplies, walking on soft sand paths barefoot, and communicating non-verbally in sign language. Lee notices Beau desiring a toy space shuttle but warns him that it is too noisy and will attract the creatures, however Regan retrieve the toy, and restores its batteries, on their way, Beau activates the toy, attracting one of the creatures, and resulting in his death. A year later, the family are living on their farm, Regan still struggles with the guilt of her brother's death, and Evelyn is heavily pregnant and nearing her due date. Lee repairs Regan's cochlear implant, but it fails to restore her hearing, later Lee takes Marcus to a river to go fishing, despite his fear and Regan begging to go instead. Regan is dejected and goes to Beau's grave and stays there overnight, while Lee explains to Marcus that they are safe as long as there are louder noises to drown out their movements and sounds. Meanwhile, Evelyn is going into labour, while making her way to the basement she steps onto a loose nail, in agony, she accidentally knocks over a glass picture frame, alerting a nearby creature. Evelyn warns Lee and Marcus of danger by flipping the outside light system from white to red, while struggling to remain silent during contractions. Arriving at the farm, Lee instructs Marcus to create a diversion while Lee runs to find Evelyn, just as she screams in agony, the creature is distracted by the loud of fireworks exploding. Lee finds Evelyn hiding in the bathroom with her new-born son, the fireworks stop, they narrowly avoid another attack when he takes them to a specially-modified soundproof basement. Evelyn begs Lee to go and find the children in the cornfield, he obeys, Evelyn falls asleep, when she wakes up she discovers the room is flooded with water from a leaking pipe, and a creature is in pursuit. Regan runs back to the farm, she and Marcus hide on top of the grain silo, lighting a fire to attract their father's attention, but a hatch door gives way and Marcus falls in, Regan jumps in and they save each other from sinking into the corn, and they avoid a creature attack hiding underneath the fallen door. Regan's repaired cochlear implant reacts to the proximity of the creature, it emits a piercingly loud high-frequency sound that drives the creature away, the children escape the silo and reunite with their father. The creature returns, Lee attacks it with an axe while Regan and Marcus hide in a pickup truck, Lee is wounded, and Marcus inadvertently shouts, attracting the creature to attack the truck. Lee uses sign language to communicate his love for the children before sacrificing himself, he screams, and the creature kills him, the children roll the truck down a hill to escape and reunite with Evelyn and the baby. Regan had never been allowed into the basement, there she sees her father's notes on the creatures, with three confirmed in the area, she also finds his experimentation with different ear implants, and radio and security camera monitors. When the creature returns to invade the basement, Regan places the boosted cochlear implant next to a microphone, magnifying the feedback to ward off the creature, it is painfully disoriented. The creature exposes its flesh beneath its armoured head, making it vulnerable to a gunshot blast from Evelyn, the security monitors show the other two confirmed creatures approaching, with the newly acquired knowledge of the creatures' weakness, Evelyn and the children prepare to fight back. Also starring Leon Russom as Man in the woods. This really is a clever premise for a scary movie, the characters having to stay completely quiet to survive and avoid the sound-sensitive monsters, the sound design is splendid, and the score by Marco Beltrami, the tension is so effective that the entire cinema audience remained silent when I went to see it, and the creatures are gruesome, a brilliant horror. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Sound Editing, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Sound, and it was nomimated the Golden Globe for Best Original Score for Marco Beltrami. Very good!