A honourable construction of terror and concept triumphantly put together by a young director.

Rating: 9/10 (21 April 2018)

A family living in silence in order to survive detection from sound seeing monsters is a very adventurous film for the former Dunder Mifflin employee, but manages to be successful and bone chilling experience. "Good work Jim".
I must take my hat off to John Krasinski in his tremendously directional work. It's surprising when you watch a horror film and you yourself are particularly sensitive to jump scares, but you emerge from the cinema with a great big smile on your face. Although filled with tense edge of seat, and moments of unimaginable terror, I couldn't help but love it. This is not a salute to the idea of horror and fear, but purely to the craft that Krasinski has displayed.
In the year 2020, when earth has been ambushed by ominous creatures that locate through their amplified sense of hearing, we follow the trail of the Abbott family lead by Lee (Krasinski) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) with their two children Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe). Living alone on a farm moving only in bare foot and communicating though sign language, the Abbott family are taking every precaution to avoid being found by the creatures. But it only lakes one lamp falling over, one pin to drop for their quiet home to be invaded by petrifying monsters. In a non-stop seat gripping array of set pieces, A Quiet Place is in a inescapable nightmare.
Now although the posters, trailers, and what I've just described sounds disconcerting, what A Quiet Place is filled with is sentiment, love and family. A story about a family living together and the efforts their father will go to, to protect them. Kraskinski's lead is a fitting choice in his strong, and leading father and husband, opposite his brave and supporting wife which Blunt delivers mighty. Blunt steals several clenching moments which she seems almost to perfect for, but which also become endless. Regan played by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds is also a stand out performance as the deaf oldest child, which makes her one of the most vulnerable characters in the story but also one of the most strong.
Our investment into these characters becomes all the more real with relationships and character drama underneath. On surface this may be horror film, but it is charged with powerful drama and emotion.
The films most striking aspect is defiantly the use of sound, poignant to the story and atmosphere. Mostly constructed by silence, the film brings to life the quiet in the world of the film that makes the even smallest noise a little jump. The idea itself of sound being the cause of horror is a fantastic proposal which is really brought to life on screen as Krasinski takes all of cinema to make this sound mixing experience. Then we also have Marco Beltrami's score, familiar to his previous horror work with loud and threating drone noises, but also adds the sentimentality in the family drama which I won't lie almost reduced me to tears.
Kraskinski has indeed been daring for this chiller, with moments and sequences that will jaw drop and shock but work in creating a very impressive piece of horror cinema, which is all the more surprising as Michael Bay is also tied to this film, lets hope he's learned a thing or too now.
A honourable construction of terror and concept triumphantly put together by a young director.