A QUIET PLACE (2018) Review

A Quiet Place stars Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, in a film directed by Krasinski off a screenplay that was written by Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and Krasinski. Michael Bay's production company, Platinum Dunes, was one of the production companies.

"In a post-apocalyptic world where sightless extraterrestrial creatures that originated from a meteor shower impact Earth, humanity, in particular, one family is forced to live in silence while hiding from these monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing."

(NOTE: I did not catch [or missed] any detail in the film that hinted at where the monsters came from, I looked up the film online and discovered the alien meteor origin.)

Two parents do what it takes to keep their children safe in this world full of alien monsters, as they hunt anything that makes any kind of sound. Humanity learns to live in silence.

This one particular family, Krasinsky and Blunt, (Their characters have names, but what's the point, they don't use them!!!) despite having learned how to live in this new world, still face issues from even the smallest things that can go wrong like a dropped toy, or a baby crying or anything that might make noise to attract the monsters. Anything! (I guess you shouldn't eat spicy foods in this new world!)


The film starts out on 'day 89' of the invasion and then we jump another year and a half in time, where Evelyn (Blunt) is just about to give birth in a few weeks.  We've watched Lee (Krasinski) sending out Morse code, looking for more survivors. We even see his wall of notes, where he's trying to figure out what the aliens are and how to beat them. But they seem invincible.

In this new world, everyone signs to each other to stay quiet but they can go places like loud rivers with rapids, water falls and the like, so they can chat quietly.

But crap hits the fan in the third act that forces our family to confront their worse fear, facing off against these lightning fast, highly efficient killing machines.


At first, as this film starts out, we watch people in silence, signing, with sub titles to show the movie-goer what they're saying. As things and events occur and develop, we get lulled into a sense of boredom watching them exist in near silence.

But as the situation develops, we watch them get confronted by an alien. But how do you confront an alien without making more noise to attract its brothers and sisters? You just have to hold perfectly still and hope it doesn't find you.

But when Evelyn's water breaks, steps on a nail and one of these things is nearby, the tension in the film skyrockets. Not to mention they stick around and keep showing up more than once around the farm our family lives on.

It's an intriguing film. The anxiety the film generates from the silence between characters, hiding from the monsters, dealing with everything in the situation, the tension builds wonderfully.

One of the best parts I liked about the film was that we never really got to see the aliens clearly until the back half of the third act. I love that kind of tension building in a film. I don't remember seeing a film like this, and it was curious and refreshing, while bugging me that this film might be completely silent throughout! But it all worked out.

If you get a chance, check the film out. I enjoyed it.

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