Silence screams

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2018)

A Quiet Place is in one sense a contradiction. Quiet infers peaceful but as we see there is nothing peaceful about this film. The pastoral farming locale where this film is shot with its green fields, corn and folksy, homely dwellings, whispers of an idyllic, gentle life. Yet as we know from the films opening scenes this is an illusion, that belies the tense reality faced by a family under siege from an inexplicable predatory enemy, that kills at the slightest sound.
This is a clever piece of film making that uses silence to increasingly ratchet up the tension nerve wracking notch by nerve wracking notch. The result is the viewer is left holding their breath wondering when someone will inadvertently violate the unspoken taboo and make a sound.
I loved the way the lack of spoken dialogue was compensated for by using sign language. The families familiarity with signs is convincingly explained too with the addition of a hearing impaired daughter. Her impediment without giving anything away is crafted into the films finale in a rather clever twist that turns everything on its head.
Is there a downside to this film? Perhaps from a purely logical point of view the degree of acuity of the creatures who hone in on the slightest sound is a little overstated. if they could really hear this well the family would be dead the first time someone passed wind or sneezed.
Putting this very minor consideration aside this is still really fantastic film making that uses subtle terror in place of the gore so often found in the horror genre. Suffice to say its a much better film for it. 8/10 from me.