If I was somehow ignorant of the filmmakers and the origin behind A QUIET PLACE, and someone told me it was a modern, gritty reimagining of a 50s B-movie ala The Thing, The Blob, or The Fly, I would probably believe them. In the opening sequence, as Lee (John Krasinski) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) take their children to an abandoned pharmacy 89 days after an unknown event, we see a newspaper blowing in the wind, with the headlines reading in big, bold letters, “IT’S THE SOUND!” I can already hear Art Gilmore’s voice in my head as if he were doing one of his many classic trailer voice overs. Even the gimmick of having the movie emphasize the necessity of quiet evokes the gimmickry of William Castle, who – if he were to have made this – would’ve unleashed a man in a scrappy costume onto any audience member who talked during the movie. When I saw that one little detail, I was immediately charmed by the film, but, more importantly, I quickly found myself terrified as well.
John Krasinski isn’t new to directing, but his previous two features (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and The Hollars) are both low budget dramedies. A Quiet Place (which he co-wrote with Bryan Woods, and Scott Beck) is something new for him entirely, and he is quick to show he means business when the previously mentioned opening sequence ends with the death of the couple’s youngest child, leaving behind Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and Marcus (Noah Jupe). But it doesn’t just work because it’s a shocking moment for the audience, it works because Krasinski shows that he understands what it takes to build suspense. Yes, the film is a lot of Thriller 101 material, but you’d be surprised how even veteran filmmakers will forget some of these rules. A lot of the techniques are built fairly by-the-books, but let’s just say that those techniques are in the book for a reason.
Like a lot of those classic B-movies, A Quiet Place is a film that knows exactly what it is, what it wants, and how it will achieve those goals in the most efficient (but effective) way possible. It’s a clean 95 minutes long, and not a second is wasted. This film is free of fat, filler, or unnecessary attempts to “elevate itself.” It also makes use of its gimmick of silence rather well, with its ingenious sound design, its minimal dialogue, emphasis on visual storytelling, and creating set-pieces revolving around the creatures and their heightened hearing abilities, as well as the inclusion of Millicent Simmonds, who is deaf in real life, and brings an authenticity to the film along with an added layer of tension in critical moments.
Every now and then the film would bring in an unnecessary false jump scare, and I can’t help but feel like it may have been tacked on because Krasinski seems to be making the smartest possible choice at pretty much every other point in the film. And side note, while I did like the creatures here, I am a little tired of seeing monsters in American horror movies that are basically just another version of the Cloverfield monster, and that fact that the face opens up is no longer a unique look. It’s not a knock against the film, just a thing that I’m annoyed at seeing time and time again. The film is also one of those movies where you simply have to take things for what they are because certain things do leave questions (how does the family get electricity, why can’t the monsters hear heartbeats if their hearing is so good, etc), but these are ultimately very minor things. The film moves fast, and it sucks you in for its entire runtime, so you won’t notice much of these little issues until far after the film is over.
A Quiet Place is easily the best studio horror film since…The Conjuring 2, I guess? Anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that these are rarely this good. For a film of this type, and a director who hasn’t done anything like this before, for it to be as experimental as it is, as crowd pleasing as it is, as artfully crafted and polished as it is, and all of that being packed in a lean, mean package, is one hell of an accomplishment. Not to mention the solid performances from the cast, who all bring humanity through mere gestures and glances. It’s a damn good time in the theater, and one that absolutely demands to be seen on the big screen with surround sound. This is the real deal, folks. I’m very impressed with what John Krasinski was able to pull off with this, and I can’t wait to see what else he has in him.