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The film “A Quiet Place,” directed by John Krasinski, is a nerve-wracking experience. You will be an active participant in a game of tension rather than a passive observer as the horror unfolds in front of your eyes, as is intended by this film. The majority of great horror films are great because we become actively invested in the fate of the characters and involved in the cinematic exercise that is being played out in front of us during the viewing experience. It’s a fast-paced thrill ride, the kind of film that raises the pulse rate and challenges the audience’s expectations while never treating them as if they’re stupid. In other words, it’s an extremely entertaining horror film.
Krasinski doesn’t waste any time with his script, which was co-written by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. Krasinski portrays an unnamed father, his real-life wife Emily Blunt portrays the mother, and Noah Jupe (“Suburbicon”), Millicent Simmonds (“Wonderstruck”), and Cade Woodward (“Wonderstruck”) portray their three children. The eldest, a young lady, is deaf (as is the remarkable young actress who plays her). “Day 89,” as the title card indicates, indicates that we’re in a post-apocalyptic world that has recently occurred. In a small-town store, the family moves very slowly—on tiptoes—taking some of the few remaining supplies and some prescription drugs for the older boy, who appears to be suffering from the flu. They communicate solely through sign language and are extremely careful not to make any noise, but the youngest boy draws a picture of a rocket on the floor, and the thing that he signs will take them all away from where they are standing.
We quickly realize that sound is extremely dangerous in this world. It only gets worse from there, as the youngest child discovers a toy that makes noise, and… things don’t turn out too well for him or her. In “A Quiet Place,” the majority of the action takes place more than a year later, as the family continues to grieve and the mother is approximately 38 weeks pregnant. In a world where there is no sound, preparing for the arrival of a newborn baby can be difficult, and the father continues to pore over newspaper articles and scientific research in the hopes of finding a way to stop the creatures that kill at the sound of the slightest sound.
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Greater-than-life adversaries with the ability to detect their prey through the use of sound have been a staple of great cinema for decades, from the xenomorph stalking the crew of the Nostromo in “Alien” to the dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park,” and Krasinski is well aware of this tradition. He’s extremely clever in the way he incorporates the viewer into this auditory game. He’s setting up what could be described as ‘auditory expectations’ on a regular basis—but not too frequently. He’ll show us a shotgun, an exposed nail in the floor, or a timer in complete silence, and we’ll be well aware of the sounds that will be made by those objects by now. Don’t be concerned; Krasinski doesn’t overdo it in any way. There aren’t any rooms filled with wind chimes or shattered glass. It’s a very subtle, clever storytelling tool that allows the director and his co-screenwriters to build tension when they aren’t allowed to use dialogue to do so, and it draws us into this world in an unexpected and incredibly enjoyable way.
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This is also aided by the fact that Krasinski displays a sense of composition and economical storytelling that he hasn’t really displayed in any of his previous works. “A Quiet Place” is a no-frills, no-nonsense thriller, which is exactly what you want when it comes to thrillers. As the film ticks like a clock on a bomb, it appears that every shot has been considered with great care, perfectly balancing scares with scenes that establish the emotional stakes and the world in which these characters live. The film has a beautiful sense of place, with almost all of the action taking place on a farm that Krasinski and his technical team have laid out in a way that makes us feel as though we are familiar with it. This is not one of those films where shaky camerawork is mistaken for effective horror storytelling. It has a refined visual language that plays beautifully with perspective and the terrifying nature of living in a world where we can’t yell to warn or find people, or, in the case of the deaf daughter, hear what’s about to happen.
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On that note, “A Quiet Place” also contains a powerful, empowering message that, without giving anything away, is at the heart of the story. In this film, empowerment takes precedence over protection, and it is this emotional hook that propels the final act to a new level of excellence. It helps a great deal that Krasinski manages to land on his feet without stumbling. It has one of the best final shots in horror in recent memory—and, of course, it comes with a familiar auditory cue that had the audience here at SXSW applauding in anticipation of it.
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Although “A Quiet Place” has almost no dialogue, the film relies heavily on visual storytelling. However, I’ll admit that the film overuses the crutches of composer Marco Beltrami’s strings for jump scares, which I find a little jarring. Despite the fact that it’s pure speculation, one can almost sense Platinum Dunes head Michael Bay insistence on using those devices, and I’d love to see a version of “A Quiet Place” that is even more sparse in terms of on-the-nose choices such as sound-scares and an overheated soundtrack.
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We live in such a noisy world that it’s difficult to imagine a time when that constant background noise is no longer present. We make noise to express ourselves; it’s a fundamental part of who we are as individuals. Moreover, in a way that owes a debt to films such as “Alien,” “A Quiet Place” weaponizes that aspect of the human condition while also breaking new ground of its own. The protagonists of so many great horror films are people who must adapt in order to survive—they must confront their own insecurities or preconceptions in order to make it through the night. The best horror films, in this sense, are often about depriving people of their power by taking away what they might consider to be theirs. “A Quiet Place” is a nerve-wracking film, but it does so in a way that is gratifying to watch. You don’t just walk out of the theater having enjoyed a thrilling ride; you walk out on a high, the kind of high that can only be obtained by watching the best horror films.
This review was written following the world premiere of the film at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, on March 10.
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