Felt familiar often, but with a clever and delicate execution

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2020)

I definitely enjoyed 'A Quiet Place' but in spite of the nicely set up 'hush concept' there were many moments of the film that felt overly reminiscent of other films and franchises. I'm not sure it's a great sign when a scene makes you recount lots of other scenes from films. That can become a bit distracting, and I have to admit there were a number of moments in the film I felt this. I might just have seen too many films of course, but one minute I thought 'Signs', then the next 'Jurassic Park' (particularly with the noise the monster was making which reminded me of the velociraptors) and there were hints of Predator and Alien in here too. Tropes like self-sacrifice, finding the monster's weakness, and 'must save the kids' were all in abundance. Throw in some 'Stranger Things' vibes as well. With the appearance of the monster, I couldn't help but think of the Demogorgon.
Lots of positives to draw from this suspenseful horror flick though. Brilliant acting from the whole cast including all the child actors (and the baby!) The monster was concealed well until the late major scenes, which is always preferred to revealing too much early on in this type of movie. The sounds used outside of the silences were cleverly placed and executed. Emotion was used really well, the characters were strong enough to have you caring about them - how many horrors kill off characters without even introducing them properly?
So in summary - the strive for originality in this one was evident, but at times the influences of the film were too obvious. Decent and delicate film overall.