Movie Reviews - A Quiet Place

Director: John Krasinski
Genre: Drama/ Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 90 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward, Leon Russom, Doris McCarthy

Description: A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.

Review: With “A Quiet Place”, director John Krasinski found fear in the everyday.
In “A Quiet Place”, an American family is forced to live in silence, while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound. It doesn’t sound like much, it is so much more than your standard horror film.
Director, screenplay writer and leading man John Krasinski is definitely one step ahead in this genre. Nowadays horror films are filled with clichés, loud jump scares, dumb people and gore. Krasinski knows exactly what really scares us: silence. And it’s what you don’t see and know that is scariest. He shows us how people can feel, knowing they can’t make a sound, and that making one can kill you. And how we depend on something as simple as sound. “A Quiet Place” makes clear how loud mankind actually is.
Krasinski pictures a post-apocalyptic world: a fallen down traffic light, an abandoned supermarket, weed in the streets. It’s day 89 since the monsters have first appeared. A family who walks barefoot, getting what they need from the supermarket. The mother seeks through medicine bottles. We know, if one bottle falls over, things will go wrong.
Post-apocalyptic films mostly start with the first day, finding out what happened and trying to adapt to the situation. Here, we go further into that situation and that is our starting point. We learn that the family already learned to adapt to the new situation, which is a fresh take on the genre.
The film is filled with intense, scary moments. Moments where you hold your breath and are so intense your knuckles turn white. And the opening scene alone goes against all the rules of the horror genre.
John Kraskinski doesn’t only direct, he also stars in his own film. And he does it very well. As for Emily Blunt, who is Krasinki’s wife in real life. Both are perfect for the role and perform solidly. And Millicent Simmonds, who plays the couple’s deaf daughter, is an excellent discovery.
“A Quiet Place” is a rare find, a breath of fresh air in the horror genre.

Rating: 4,5 / 5