Silence Is Golden, Family Is Everything

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2018)

A Quiet Place is John Krasinksi's second time directing outside The Office. The film features Krasinksi opposite his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, and centres around the idea of family. While the film definitely lives up to its thriller/horror title, it's mostly about a couple's desperate attempts to keep their children safe and raise them in a silent, but deadly world.
*Spoilers ahead
The film opens with a documentary style shot "Day 89" which gives the viewer the sense of being in the midst of something recent. As implied in the trailer the family walks barefoot and silently everywhere, when the youngest of the children finds a rocket, something he thinks can take his family away, he is determined to have it. Naturally, his father takes the batteries out and tries to tell him no, and being a little kid, the boy snuck both the toy and batteries with him. From the trailer you can guess what happens next, it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the film both story wise and horror wise.
Jumping ahead, the two parents struggle to connect with their children, mainly their daughter who feels both responsible for her brothers death and frustrated at the lack of trust from her parents. The film is so quiet, eating your popcorn feels blasphemous and it highlights the importance of sound to our lives. Without being able to speak to their children, Blunt and Krasinski struggle to express their emotions and ultimately how much they love them. In the same way, the kids are unable to fully express their emotions and frustrations, this becomes even more difficult as Blunt's character goes into labour.
The creatures themselves, whatever they are, are genuinely terrifying, looking like some grotesque mix of the demogorgon and the Clickers from The Last of Us. The film uses some of the most classic horror tricks out there like the bloody hand squeaking down the window, jump scares, and corn fields, and reminds a new generation why such things are sinister and horrifying. For this writer, the scene that stuck with me was the basement flooding scene, it's intimate in all the worst ways spiking my anxiety and raising my neck hairs.
John Krasinski definetly took a risk with the concept and it paid off. The almost-silent film comes together like a creepy masterpiece that also emulates what a parent will do for their child. A Quiet Place knows what the audience wants to see and after teasing you for a little bit, more than delivers. The ending of the movie will have you feeling both emotional and triumphant and wraps up this thriller in a bad ass bow, hopefully we will see more like this from Krasinski.