A Quiet Place

It’s always nice to see a new original franchise being birthed from an unexpected success, and the 2019 sci-fi horror film, A Quiet Place, was one such success. With a relatively small budget of only $17 million, this movie about a family struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world which has been overrun by blind aliens that  kill anything that makes a sound, proved to be a massive hit with critics and audiences, earned a whopping $341 million at the box office and launched its own universe with a sequel coming out in 2020, a spin off set in New York in 2024, and a final sequel set to be released in 2025. Growing from a small seed into a massive oak, A Quiet Place became a new face of horror, created a new threat that had a distinct aspect about its design and method of killing, formed a world that people wanted to see more of, and popularized a unique cinematic experience that actively encouraged the viewers to stay quiet, resulting in a new phenomenon in the horror space. After Earth was invaded by sightless aliens with incredibly sharp hearing, humanity has been forced to readjust to their new way of life in order to survive. One such group of people is the Abbott family, which consist of the father, Lee (played by John Krasinski), the mother, Evelyn (played by Emily Blunt) and their two children, Marcus and Reagan (played by Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds) who have managed to survive in their woodland cabin due to setting up various precautionary measures to alert them of nearby dangers, and by speaking exclusively in American Sign Language (ASL), with the family being fluent in it already due to Reagan being deaf. While out on a scavenging trip, the aliens manage to get pass their defenses and start attacking the house, leaving a pregnant Evelyn at their mercy and the rest of the family being scrambled and separated. Having to rush back to protect his wife and children, this family will need to pull out all the stops in order to survive in this new world. A Quiet Place houses solid performances, an entertaining concept, and some effective scenes that really highlight the unique atmosphere of this world, but you can also feel at several points where this film doesn’t really work and the hype surrounding it may be more condensed to a specific moment rather than its own quality

Despite John Krasinski becoming the face of the franchise due to directing this film and the follow-up sequel, he wasn’t the brain child of this premise, with that honor going to filmmaking duo, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who had conceived the idea back in 2016, and managed to secure a deal with Paramount Pictures after some assistance from Platinum Dunes, a production company headed by Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and Michael Bay (all of whom acted as producers on this film). Krasinski later took on the reigns of director and fellow screenwriter but made sure to keep the essence of the original idea. As a new brand in the horror space, A Quiet Place does a good job standing out for itself, as while the premise of an apocalyptic earth overrun by aliens isn’t that original, the aspect of them being blind and reliant on sound results in a distinct identity for the franchise and its threat, which leads way to several memorable moments that highlight the ‘’quiet’’ factor of this world very well. Not just through the prominent use of sign language rather than dialogue which almost makes it a silent film, but also in how it builds tension and forms into an interactive experience, especially when watched in a theatre. It would’ve encouraged the audience to hold their breath and keep as silent as possible alongside the characters when a monster got closer, fearing that a single crunch of popcorn would set them off, it’s pretty effective in that regard and created a phenomenon that not a lot of horror franchise can say they’ve done. With that said, while the concept has room for a ton of fun situations, it’s hard to pretend that it creates a fantastic narrative, as while it is well handled, it is still a done-before plot, and the screenplay by Krasinski, Woods and Beck is pretty thin and lacking in much meat. It’s not really a film that has many surprises or twists, and even the way the film is delivered makes these obvious outcomes feel purposefully laid out to an almost blatant level (the opening is positioned to be a shock, but everything from the advertising to the literal build up gives everything away). Given how all three were still fledgling filmmakers and were mostly associated with short films prior to this, the film probably would’ve functioned better within a shorter format, as the plot is small and not fleshed out in a way that would make you believe it could become a long-lasting franchise. It doesn’t lace in much context or world building, which is fine in theory as the ambiguity of the situation is okay but means it doesn’t really evolve beyond its base idea, and the pace is so rapid that it just feels like the audience experienced a singular incident rather than a full-length feature (and the film really isn’t niche or inventive enough to make that feel fulfilling). Krasinski’s directing is also good enough but not the most memorable, as despite doing fairly well for still being fresh and handling some of the tense moments pretty effectively, there is a lack of experimentation and style in his work which makes it feel a little bland and safe. Its functional, but not the most interesting.

Given the small scale and imitate mentality of the picture, the cast would be a small ensemble and would need to function like a familial unit in order for the audience to fully get invested in them, and it’s hard to say the film really does that. Not because the acting is bad as it isn’t and given the fact that these four get little to no chances to talk, its impressive they get across any heart at all, but from a scripting level, it doesn’t provide much to work with on any of these roles and it leaves them feeling pretty weak and even pretty stupid. This is a common curse within horror, but it feels like these characters make several poor decisions that only seem to make the situation worse, and it results in some frustrated feelings being directed towards them, especially when the actions are easily fixable (does nobody know how to close a door in this world?) Outside of small moments, it doesn’t allow for much bonding time between any of them, and because the film is so fast paced and not really allowing for any moments of brevity, it limits how fully-rounded these people can be, and they come off as one-note roles familiar to this genre. In terms of performances, everybody looks like they’re trying, and you can tell these are talented people who will go on to do better things, but most of them aren’t really used well. Both Krasinski and especially Blunt feel like they are handicapped a bit due to barely being able to speak as most of their charm and identity comes from their ability to handle dialogue in a snarky yet humorous manner and removing that eliminates a good chunk of their acting strengths and while their emoting is good, it’s not good enough to really be eye-catching. The kids are a little better at this, with Noah Jupe barely being given anything to do, but can at least sell faces of panic, and since Millicent Simmonds is herself deaf, she feels the most comfortable with this material and does pretty good all throughout, yet her character is a bit of a pain and isn’t written in a way that makes you fully relate with her in spite of the situation being understandable.

For a film where sound is a big component, you’d hope it’d play a big part in the picture, and it feels like it was. The overall sound design handled by sound editors, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn, is quite impressive. Apparently, the crew avoided making noise on set so that they could record smaller diegetic noises, highlighting those seemingly minute casual sounds and making them feel like bigger deals than they actually are. Given how quiet the world feels for both the characters and the audience due to not featuring much of a musical score and cinematic qualities that would heighten noise, it stands out more when a sound is featured, whether in a good or a bad way. Hearing a distressing cry or wince of pain will make someone shudder in terror and anxiety, and even hearing a piece of music through headphones or even a baby’s heartbeat through the womb can be uniquely touching given the way the film and world is envisioned (another quality that adds to this film’s distinct identity). It is also cool seeing frequent usage of ASL throughout the film, with the movie even getting Douglas Ridloff to act as a deaf mentor and teach most of the actor’s ASL. Not only does this feel like a smart inclusion as given the threat, it would be clever and practical to have a non-verbal method of communication, but all the actors do good at performing sign language in a way that feels authentic, it’s a nice element for the franchise to have, and while it would’ve been cool if it tried to go fully silent and not have any dialogue at all, there was still an attempt that took it at least 80% of the way and deserves points for attempting it. The creatures aren’t shown on screen a lot and therefore aren’t given much time to really form an identity outside of their blindness and affinity with sound (which even then has been done before in something like The Last of Us in a slightly more interesting and creative manner). The designs themselves were handled by production designer Jeffrey Beecroft and visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar, and while the effects can look a little overly polished and more like something out of a large-scale blockbuster (Farrar was the effects supervisor on the Transformers films, which does explain things), they aren’t distracting in any way and aspects like the slotted faces and ear canals being a part of their bodies are pretty cool touches

A Quiet Place is a solid stand-alone film that made a pretty small story into a memorable cinematic experience which hooked people in so much that it evolved into something much bigger than anticipated. On the surface, it’s hard to exactly get the hype outside of its original release window as the movie is competently made and houses some good scenes and performances but doesn’t contain a lot of creativity and/or effective world building to make it something that would stand out against other similarly handled films and ideas. The pieces are there to make this work and the sequel does evolve the franchise to be more than how it started, but this first entry feels more like a passionate first step rather than something truly wowing. The writing isn’t spectacular, the story is pretty small and not that engaging, the characters can be a little grating and simplistic, some scenes feel like they’re positioned to work more for the trailer rather than in the context of the story, and it probably would’ve worked better as a short film that became a franchise rather than the alternative. Definitely good, but still a small beginning, let this silent experience show you why it became such a huge hit.