Worth a watch but the script is sketchy!

Rating: 6/10 (16 August 2018)

Review:
It must have been an extremely tough challenge to make a horror/drama movie with only a few pages of dialogue, so I have to commend the director on taking on such a big task but with that aside, the script had too many holes in it. The movie jumps straight in at the deep end, with no explanation on why a family is scavenging for food in a deserted town, whilst staying completely silent. The family communicate with each other by sign language, and you soon work out that the young daughter, Regan Abbott (Millicent Simmonds) is actually congenitally deaf. Her mother, Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt), and father Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) try there utmost to keep there 3 young children safe, from the sightless extraterrestrial creatures with hypersensitive hearing, that attack anything that makes noise and has indestructible armoured skin, is always close by. The ruthless creatures have managed to wipe out most of the earth's humans and animal population over a 3 month period in 2020, so the Abbott family struggle to survive by not making a sound. When Regan gives a space shuttle toy to her young brother, which Lee had previously taken from him, he decides to play with it on the way home through the woods, not realising that the toy had sound. He is immediately killed by one of the ruthless creatures, which puts a strain on Regan's relationship with her dad. More than a year later, Evelyn is heavily pregnant and Lee is trying to make radio contact with the outside world. Lee then takes his young boy fishing, while Regan visits the memorial for her dead brother, which she still feels responsible for. Lee is able to talk to his son by a waterfall because the creatures can't hear them when louder sounds mask their audible movements. Meanwhile, Evelyn goes into labour, earlier than expected, and she steps on a nail on the stairs, which causes her to drop a glass picture frame. This alerts one of the creatures so she sends a message to her family by turning on loads of red lights on the exterior of the house. Whilst struggling not to make a sound during her contractions, and with blood gushing out of her foot, Evelyn hides in the bathroom, with the creature wandering around her house. when Lee eventually sees the danger lights around the house, he tells his boy to set off some fireworks as a diversion, and then he goes to save his wife. By the time Lee gets to Evelyn, she has already had the baby, and they narrowly escape another attack, due to the baby crying. They rush to Lee's improvised soundproofed barn basement, were Evelyn tells Lee to go and save the children. Meanwhile, Regan has met up with her brother, and she sets a fire to alert her father where they are. When the flame burns out, Marcus falls through a hatched door, and he begins to sink into a grain silo, which alerts the creature that was stalking Evelyn. Regan manages to save him, and they're able to avoid the creature by hiding under it. Regan's cochlear implant reacts to the proximity of the creature by emitting a piercingly loud high-frequency sound that drives the creature away. The children then meet up with Lee, who gets wounded by the creature while they are hiding in a pick-up truck. He then sacrifices his life for his children, by causing a distraction so they can escape back to the house to reunite with Evelyn. The creature then returns to the basement, were Evelyn has picked up a shotgun to protect her children but Regan works out that the implant causes the creature distress, by looking at her father's notes around the basement. She uses a nearby microphone to magnify the feedback to ward off the creature, which causes him to expose the flesh beneath his armoured head. As soon as Evelyn sees an opportunity, she uses the shotgun to shoot the creature in his head, which finally destroys him but she can see another 2 creatures coming towards the house on the CCTV cameras. This is when you know that there will definitely be a sequel, especially after the rave reviews that this movie received. For a low budget movie, it certainly did well at the box office but I personally was disappointed with the ending, mainly because of the ease of killing this creature that had caused there life hell. I know that they didn't work out about the power of the cochlear implant before the final showdown but after a year of experimenting in a bunker, I thought that Lee would have tried to trap the monster by luring it towards them and trying to kill it. Also, the whole talking thing under the waterfall was ridiculous. I would have built a home by the fall so they could chat all of the time, even though Regan was deaf. Also, I was surprised that the whole family was able to get to the basement without touching this mysterious nail that was coming out of the stairs. Anyway, as I said before there were a few sketchy moments that wasn't thought through properly but it was an intense watch, which has to get some top marks for originality. I Am Legend is similar in a lot of ways but they actually explained what was happening, where this movie leaves it up to your imagination to piece it all together. I did find the creatures quite gruesome but there was a whole backstory that was missing about them, which let the movie down. Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch and I'm sure that more will be explained when they release a sequel. Watchable!
Round-Up:
This is the first time that the husband and wife team, of Blunt and Krasinski has worked together, and with John behind the camera, they certainly did a good job with this movie. After Emily read the script, she was drawn into the project, even though John was looking for an actress to play the role, so he was surprised when she agreed to star in his first major release. He previously directed Brief Interviews With Hideous Men in 2009, and the Hollars in 2015 but its really this movie that has proved that he is as good behind the camera, as well as being in front of it. The fact that Emily and John are parents, made the whole "saving the family" concept feel real, and their chemistry on screen was great. Also, the girl who played Regan, Millicent Simmonds, was actually really deaf, so there are quite a few elements that really worked in this film. Personally, I would have liked a straightforward timeline, to explain were these weird creatures came from, and the destruction they had caused beforehand because it all seemed a bit jumpy, from one situation to another. With that aside, it's still worth a watch and I'm sure that people will be jumping out of there seats in some of their scenes.
Budget: $17million
Worldwide Gross: $333million
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward and Leon Russom. 6/10