A Quiet Place

**A Quiet Place** is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror film directed by John Kransinski (who also stars in the film), which first premiered at SXSW on March 9, 2018 and was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on April 6, 2018.

## Plot

In a post-apocalyptic world, a family struggles to live in silence while hiding from monsters who have ultra-sensitive hearing.

## Cast

* John Krasinski, as Lee Abbott
* Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott
* Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott
* Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott
* Cade Woodward as Beau Abbott
* Ezekiel and Evangelina Cavoli as newborn Baby Abbott

## Production

### Development and writing

John Krasinski wrote the screenplay with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Beck and Woods grew up together in Iowa and had watched numerous silent films in college, and they began working on the story that led to the film. They used their experience growing up close to farmland as the setting, including a grain silo as a place considered dangerous in their upbringing.

Beck and Woods began writing the film in January 2016, and Krasinski read their initial script the following July.

The concept appealed to Krasinski of parents protecting their children, especially as his second child with actress Emily Blunt had just been born, and Blunt encouraged him to direct the film.

By March 2017, Paramount had bought Beck and Woods's script, and they hired Krasinski to rewrite the script and direct the film, which was his third directorial credit and his first for a major studio.

Blunt did not want to be cast in the film, but she read the script on a plane flight and immediately told her husband, *"I need to do it."* He agreed, and they were both cast in the starring roles.

### Filming

Production for "A Quiet Place" took place from May to November 2017 in Dutchess and Ulster counties in upstate New York.

Filmmakers spent their budget locally, including a purchase of 20 tons of corn, which they hired local farmers to grow. Some filming took place on a soundstage in the town of Pawling in Dutchess County, as well as on-location in the county's city of Beacon.

Filming also took place on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in New Paltz of Ulster County, using the Springtown Truss Bridge.

Outside Dutchess and Ulster counties, filming took place on Main Street in Little Falls in Herkimer County, New York.

### Sound and music

During filming, the crew avoided making noise so diegetic synchronized sounds (e.g., the sound of rolling dice on a game board) could be recorded; the sounds were amplified in post-production.

A traditional musical score was also added, which Krasinski justified in wanting audiences to remain familiar with watching a mainstream film, and not feel like part of a *"silence experiment."*

Supervising sound editors Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn worked on "A Quiet Place".

For the scenes from the perspective of the deaf daughter, sound was removed to put greater focus on the visual.

They also advised on organizing shots to reflect the creatures' perspective, like showing them noticing a sound, then showing what was causing the sound.

Composer Marco Beltrami provided the sound editors music to work with in a way that would not interfere with the sound design throughout the film.

In the film, the creatures are blind and they communicate through clicking sounds. Aadahl and Van der Ryn said they were inspired by animal echolocation, such as that employed by bats.

The sound of feedback (normally avoided by sound editors) was woven into the story at a loudness level so that would not bother audiences too much.

### The use of sign language

The characters communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) to avoid making sound, so the filmmakers hired deaf mentor Douglas Ridloff to teach ASL to the actors and to be available to make corrections.

They also hired an ASL interpreter for deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, so that spoken and signed language could be interpreted back and forth on set.

Simmonds grew up with ASL, and she helped teach her fellow actors to sign. She said, *"In the movie, we've been signing together for years and years. So it should look fluent."*

Simmonds observed that each character's use of sign language reflected his or her motivations: the father had short and brief signs which showed his survival mentality, while the mother had more expressive signs as part of wanting her children to experience more than survival.

Krasinski said that Simmonds's character used *"signing that's very defiant, it's very teenage defiant."* Simmonds said that she suggested for the daughter to rebel rather than cower during a sign-language fight with her father.

She also said that the script originally had the father sign *"I love you"* to his daughter at the end of the film, but she suggested for him to follow with *"I've always loved you"* to make up for their arguing earlier in the film.

Producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller said that they initially planned not to provide on-screen subtitles for sign-language dialogue while providing only *"context clues,"* but they realized that subtitles were necessary for the scene in which the deaf daughter and her hearing father argue about the modified hearing aid. They subsequently added subtitles for all sign-language dialogue in the film.

### Creature design

Production designer Jeffrey Beecroft headed the creature design, and Industrial Light & Magic created the creatures, led by visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar.

The director wanted the creatures to look like they had evolved to no longer need eyes, and to be *"somewhat humanoid"* in nature. Farrar said the initial creature design showed them with rhinoceros-like horns out of their faces, later redesigned.

Vanity Fair reported that, *"The team immediately set about pulling references; prehistoric fish, black snakes, and bats, particularly their movement patterns. Inspiration was also drawn from bog people: cadavers that have been mummified in peat, turning the skin black and giving it a sagging, leathery look."*

Krasinski provided motion-capture for the creatures.

## Marketing

Paramount Pictures released the first trailer for "A Quiet Place" in November 2017.

It aired a 30-second commercial for the film during the US football championship Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018.

Of the seven trailers that aired during the playoff, "A Quiet Place" and "Red Sparrow" were shown during the pregame & had the lowest views and social conversations.

"A Quiet Place" had 149,000 views on YouTube, 275,000 views on Facebook, and 2,900 social conversations.

On February 12, 2018, John Krasinski appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to present the full trailer for the film.

The studio spent an estimated $86 million on prints and advertisements for the film.

## Premiere

"A Quiet Place" first premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival as the opening-night film on March 9, 2018.

It was selected from 2,458 submissions and earned "raves" from critics, according to IndieWire.

Following its premiere, the film experienced social media growth to under 52 million views across multiple platforms, outpacing "Get Out", which had 46.9 million views.

## Box Office

"A Quiet Place" was first commercially released in theaters in the first week of April 2018 in multiple territories, including North America.

The film grossed $188 million in the United States and Canada, and $152.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $340.7 million.

Deadline Hollywood estimates the net profit of the film to be $93 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

Paramount Pictures released "A Quiet Place" in 3,508 theaters in the United States and Canada on April 6, 2018, alongside "Blockers", "Chappaquiddick" and "The Miracle Season".

The film made $19 million on its first day (including $4.3 million from Thursday night previews at 2,750 theaters), increasing weekend projections to $47 million.

Unlike most horror films, which are front-loaded on Friday and suffer drops the rest of the weekend, "A Quiet Place" made $19.1 million on Saturday. It went on to debut to $50.2 million, topping the box office and marking the biggest opening for a Paramount film since "Star Trek Beyond" in July 2016.

The film made $32.9 million in its second weekend, dropping 34% (better than the 50+% that horror films normally see) and finishing second at the box office, behind newcomer "Rampage" ($35.7 million).

The hold represented the second-best-ever second weekend for a scary movie behind "It."

"A Quiet Place" regained the top spot the following week, grossing $20.9 million (a 36% drop), but it dropped back down to second place the following weekend behind "Avengers: Infinity War" with $10.7 million.

Through its first two weeks of international release, "A Quiet Place" had made $51.7 million, with its top markets being the United Kingdom ($9.2 million), Mexico ($5.1 million), Australia ($4.6 million), Brazil ($3.9 million), Indonesia ($3.4 million), the Philippines ($2.7 million) and Taiwan ($1.9 million).

It also debuted to $2.2 million in Russia, the biggest-ever opening for a Paramount horror film in the country.

In its third weekend overseas, "A Quiet Place" dipped only 37% for a total of $15 million from 57 markets. During its fourth weekend in international markets, it grossed $6.6 million.

As of May 20, 2018, the film's largest markets were United Kingdom ($16.3 million), Australia ($9.3 million), Mexico ($7.5 million) and Brazil ($6.9 million).

"A Quiet Place" was released in China on May 18 and made $17.7 million from 8,731 screens in its opening weekend.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "A Quiet Place" holds an approval rating of 96% based on 378 reviews and an average rating of 8.20\10.

The website's critical consensus reads: *"A Quiet Place artfully plays on elemental fears with a ruthlessly intelligent creature feature that's as original as it is scary – and establishes director John Krasinski as a rising talent."*

On Metacritic, "A Quiet Place" has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 81% overall positive score and a 63% "definite recommend."

Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3.5 out of 4, praising the movie's exploration of themes about parenthood, and saying: *"This new horror classic will fry your nerves to a frazzle."*

Variety's Owen Gleiberman said: *"A Quiet Place is a tautly original genre-bending exercise, technically sleek and accomplished, with some vivid, scary moments, though it's a little too in love with the stoned logic of its own premise."*

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5 out of 4 and said, *"My favorite moment, an encounter between Regan and one of the monsters in a cornfield, plays with sound and image and tension, creatively. Other bits are more shameless...I don't know if I'd call A Quiet Place enjoyable; it's more grueling than cathartic."*

Author Stephen King praised "A Quiet Place" in a tweet, saying: *"A QUIET PLACE is an extraordinary piece of work. Terrific acting, but the main thing is the SILENCE, and how it makes the camera's eye open wide in a way few movies manage."*

Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com called the film *"Krasinski's breakthrough as a triple-threat entertainer, but it's been a long time coming... By no accident, he's tackled the horror genre while relying on the unique strength that can be seen throughout his acting work, and one that has made him relatable as an everyman across TV and film—expressive silence."*

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian says: *"In its simplicity and punch, this is a film that feels as if it could have been made decades ago, in the classic age of Planet of the Apes or The Omega Man. It is a cracking back-to-basics thriller that does not depend too much on what these creatures look like."*

Matthew Monagle of Film School Rejects said "A Quiet Place" seemed to be *"the early frontrunner for the sparsely intellectual horror movie of the year"* (like previous films "The Babadook" and "The Witch").

Monagle said Krasinski (who had directed two previous films) was *"making an unusual pivot into a genre typically reserved for newcomers", and considered it to be part of a movement toward horror films layered "in storytelling, [with] character beats not typically found in a horror movie".*

Tatiana Tenreyro, writing for Bustle, said while "A Quiet Place" was not a silent film, *"It is the first of its kind within the modern horror genre for how little spoken dialogue it actually has."*

She said the rare moments of spoken dialogue *"give depth to this horror movie, showing how the narrative defies the genre's traditional films even further".*