Don't Think About It

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2018)

If the creature's only sense is acute hearing, wouldn't it be rather easy to elude them? Every time they attack, just throw a distraction in the opposite direction. If they kill everything that makes a noise, why is there so much ambient noise? Wouldn't they tear through the native fauna in an instant? Wouldn't the weight of the corn kernels on top form a more solid surface, depriving you the ability to swim through it like Scrooge McDuck's rural equivalent? The answer to these questions is simple. Don't think about it. A Quiet Place is a great movie, everything it does it does masterfully, don't sweat the details.
The big draw here is sound. This movie knows how to work the audience, and does it by denying you of hearing. There is so little dialogue, so many scenes with little more than ambient sound, and times where they deprive you even of that, it sets an impeccable atmosphere of distress and hopelessness. While there are still signs of life, and they aren't the last survivors on earth, but it shows that they are in dire straights. There is nothing to keep the monsters at bay, closing a door might as well be sealing your own coffin, their only hope is to avoid drawing their attention. As such, they go to such great lengths to avoid making any sound like walking on sand and avoiding any food that crinkles like bags of chips. But then they took it a step further and use sound to convey a key plot point, the sister is deaf. The father works on an ear piece but there is no explanation as to what it is until the daughter puts it on, and the sound just stops. Its such a compelling way to convey her affliction, I cannot stress that scene enough.
The monsters, I found, to be a little lacking. In spite their seemingly glowing weakness, they just came off as too overpowered. They are faster than any human, strong enough to tar through steel, and their design looks formidable, but they aren't as memorable as something like the xenomorphs or the predator. There is just so little flair to them, which is a shame as they are so frequently visible. The scenes where they are out of focus are fine but when you do get a good look at them, they look like they were ripped from something else, like a zerg prototype from Starcraft or some bug that never made it into Stormship Troopers. But they do their job at least, and the scene where it exposes what I can only describe as its ear were interesting enough.
Ultimately, this is the easiest recommendation I could make this year. This is a great horror movie that just requires the Gremlins treatment. Don't worry about the details, the obvious audience cues or the negative critiques by some overly political nut jobs, and just let yourself be swept away in the bleak atmosphere and compelling family drama.