"If they hear you, they hunt you."
Who knew that actor John Krasinski was more than just half of the delightfully quirky and cute couple that entertained us on The Office? Well, of course, if you had your ear to the independent film ground you'd know about the equally quirky RomCom 'The Hollars,' but other than that, with the exception of is bombshell marriage, we haven't heard a lot from Krasinski until recently. This fall he is expected to thrill us as a young Jack Ryan on Amazon, but before that he managed to further hone his acting, directing, producing, and writing skills with a little survival horror film. A QUIET PLACE's original treatment is written by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, drawing on their mutual love for silent films. In a sweep of brilliance and passion, John Krasinski took over their concept and created an amazing piece of art and suspenseful horror. Not only does Krasinski direct, but he had the audacity to cast himself as the lead, and portrays the character with deft skill. To further accent the audacity his real-life wife, Emily Blunt (Into the Woods, The Girl on the Train) plays his wife, where she dominates her scenes with an Oscar-worthy performance, that is if a true horror film could ever receive an Oscar. Krasinski and Blunt seem to be naturally conditioned to play these protective parents in an apocalyptic time with Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) and Noah Jupe (Wonder) logically rounding out the cast as their children trying to grow, cope, and be human in a time when silence can save their lives.
A QUIET PLACE doesn't waste any time getting to the story so neither do we here... With little to no fanfare, we find ourselves in a deserted, possibly apocalyptic city in which our family of five, the Abbots, are quietly gathering supplies in a ransacked department store. The fact the beginning of the film doesn't bother with exposition and just drops us into the middle of the desperation of it all sets the pace for the rest of the film. Lost and not sure what is going to happen next, Krasinski knows the rules of survival horror but doesn't feel limited by them. Instead, he builds the opening tension, sets us up for something bad to happen, then lets it happen before we've had a chance to register exactly whats going on. This introduction does nothing to give us the background to the conditions the family has found themselves in but focuses us on the family and their loss, suffering, angst, and struggle to find normalcy in a new world where to make noise will promise certain death. From this point on the attention to detail is incredible as we learn just what this family has done to adjust their lives, like sandy walkways that mute footsteps, homemade crochet game pieces, and even the elaborate set up created to distract the creatures when Blunt's character is ready to give birth. This scene alone is enough to garner awards for everything from acting to visual effects and has earned its place in iconography via the still that graces the official poster art above. Finally, we do get our exposition through the eyes of their deaf child, and from then on anything that can go wrong will.
A QUIET PLACE is truly a horror film in obvious ways, i.e. creatures that want to eat to us while we try to survive in a desolated world; but it is also about parents teaching his children survival when its ok to relax, and willing to sacrifice anything to ensure their safety. In fact, it is that which caused Krasinski, a self-professed scaredy cat and previously not a horror fan, to become obsessed with creating the film. You can tell he did his homework, with homages from Jaws to Alien, with camera skills and story manipulations, amazing character choices like Simmonds and Jupe, and the extremely important use of sound in a mostly silent film make him look like a veteran rather than a newbie horror director with a few experiments to try out. Pay special attention to the lack of sound during scenes revolving around the talented and deaf Simmonds, or the overwhelming use of sound when the creature is making its move. A QUIET PLACE is also extremely well self-contained from beginning to end, complete with teases and twists that lead us, like a parent through an extremely creepy haunted attraction, to an extremely cathartic end. Speaking of the end, and I definitely do not want to give away anything, my greatest fear as I came to understand the creatures, or aliens, is that the film would go too far in a Shyamalan direction. Thankfully, Krasinski isn't your average horror director and very few similarities carried through to the end. What we do have is a brilliant offbeat horror film designed to keep you on the edge of your seat and feeling for this family.
There is so much about A QUIET PLACE that deserves being pointed out but in the spirit of expecting you will see it, we'll keep our opinions limited to these few. We only ask that if you would like to contribute to the discussion further please do so in the comments below, we will love to hear your thoughts!
A QUIET PLACE 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. Following its premiere, the film experienced social media growth to under 52 million views across multiple platforms, outpacing 'Get Out' (2017), which had 46.9 million views. Paramount Pictures released A QUIET PLACE to theaters on April 6, 2018, alongside Blockers, Chappaquiddick, and The Miracle Season. Despite the competition, A QUIET PLACE was the second biggest domestic debut of 2018 behind Black Panther. Currently running at your local theater, A QUIET PLACE is a rejuvenating reinvention of suspenseful horror that everyone must see to believe.
I don't usually like to give star ratings, but if I did, A QUIET PLACE would be a solid 5 out of 5 (which normally I would never rate a film that high), absolutely an early contender for the horror film of the year.
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