← Back to Reviews
in
A Quite Place
Last year it was Jordan Peele and Get Out, this year it's John Krasinski and A Quiet Place. I will try to talk about this superior thriller without spoilers.
John Krasinski co-wrote and directed this post-Apocalyptic nail biter that introduces the viewer to a solitary family, all barefoot, rummaging through an abandoned store but for some reason they seem to be communicating with sign language even though they are not mutes. We see a child pull a model airplane off a shelf and one of his parents leap to catch it before it actually hits the floor. Before we realize it, it is revealed that the family is in terrible danger from some seriously dangerous alien creatures who have hyper-sensitive hearing and only appear when they hear noise.
Not a lot of backstory is provided here, but we do get a glance at some old newspapers warning of these creatures and how to protect yourselves from them but no other explanation is supplied as the story plows forward focused on this one family who have somehow managed to live a noiseless existence but we begin to wonder how long this can last when it is revealed that the mother (Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt) is pregnant.
Krasinski and his co-screenwriters Bryan Woods and Scott Beck really score here creating a horror film that not only provides the expected scares, but non-stop nail-biting suspense for its entire running time, I'm talking Hitchcock-calibre suspense that has the viewer alternately squirming, holding its breath, and trying to figure out what's going to happen next and always being wrong. The screenplay also scores in establishing this family unit at the beginning of the story and continually separating them throughout the story. Safety in numbers has always been assumed in horror films but Krasinski throws that rule out the window too...where the horror genre is concerned, nothing is sacred here and nothing feels ripped off from another movie.
This movie had me alternately holding onto something and jumping out of my skin at the same time and this is coming from someone who has never really been into the horror genre so that's saying something. Krasinski and Blunt are a couple whose offscreen chemistry is just as strong onscreen, having us frightened for these people from the opening frames even though we don't really know what's going on yet. Krasinski has employed first rate production values here with special nods to editing and, ironically, the sound and sound editing. This movie had me on the edge of my seat so I can only imagine what people who really like horror movies are going to think.
Last year it was Jordan Peele and Get Out, this year it's John Krasinski and A Quiet Place. I will try to talk about this superior thriller without spoilers.
John Krasinski co-wrote and directed this post-Apocalyptic nail biter that introduces the viewer to a solitary family, all barefoot, rummaging through an abandoned store but for some reason they seem to be communicating with sign language even though they are not mutes. We see a child pull a model airplane off a shelf and one of his parents leap to catch it before it actually hits the floor. Before we realize it, it is revealed that the family is in terrible danger from some seriously dangerous alien creatures who have hyper-sensitive hearing and only appear when they hear noise.
Not a lot of backstory is provided here, but we do get a glance at some old newspapers warning of these creatures and how to protect yourselves from them but no other explanation is supplied as the story plows forward focused on this one family who have somehow managed to live a noiseless existence but we begin to wonder how long this can last when it is revealed that the mother (Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt) is pregnant.
Krasinski and his co-screenwriters Bryan Woods and Scott Beck really score here creating a horror film that not only provides the expected scares, but non-stop nail-biting suspense for its entire running time, I'm talking Hitchcock-calibre suspense that has the viewer alternately squirming, holding its breath, and trying to figure out what's going to happen next and always being wrong. The screenplay also scores in establishing this family unit at the beginning of the story and continually separating them throughout the story. Safety in numbers has always been assumed in horror films but Krasinski throws that rule out the window too...where the horror genre is concerned, nothing is sacred here and nothing feels ripped off from another movie.
This movie had me alternately holding onto something and jumping out of my skin at the same time and this is coming from someone who has never really been into the horror genre so that's saying something. Krasinski and Blunt are a couple whose offscreen chemistry is just as strong onscreen, having us frightened for these people from the opening frames even though we don't really know what's going on yet. Krasinski has employed first rate production values here with special nods to editing and, ironically, the sound and sound editing. This movie had me on the edge of my seat so I can only imagine what people who really like horror movies are going to think.