Im not really sure why we have a fascination with monster movies, but they seem to scratch an itch that is as old as humanity. Perhaps its simply the adrenaline rush we get from fear, or the fact we seem to love seeing ourselves up against the odds battling for survival.
Whatever the explanation is, A Quiet Place plays very successfully on this fascination and delivers spine tingling thrills.
It’s set in the future and most of humanity has been wiped out by some unseen alien creatures who are super fast and kill their prey instantly before vanishing. We discover part way through the film that the monsters blind, but are attracted by sound.
At the centre of this story is the Abbott family who have survived the mass culling and eke out an existence on a small farm. The catch is they have to communicate by sign language and not make any sound. This may seem easy, but when you think of how much noise humans make without even thinking about it, it’s actually a monumental feat. One of their three children is deaf, so trying to make her understand what noise is and that one shouldn’t make any, is just one of the challenges the family faces.
I won’t spoil the plot for you, but as you can imagine, on more than one occasion, unexpected noise brings the creatures to the farm and all hell breaks loose.
The cast are well suited for this movie and the on-screen chemistry between John Krasinski (who also directed the film) and Emily Blunt is palpable. It probably helps they are married in real life. Krasinski has beefed up for this role and plays a nice balance of butch survivalist and loving father.
I’ve always liked Emily Blunt and in one scene she gives a gripping performance trying to suppress her instinct to scream while in intense pain – I challenge you not to literally feel her pain as a monster inches closer to her.
The kids are also very good, and particularly Millicent Simmonds who, deaf in real life, brings a degree of innocence and honesty to her role.
For much of the film we only get glimpses of the creatures. They move so fast that we can only guess at what they look like and that adds to the suspense as we tend to fear what we cant see or understand. Unfortunately when we do get to finally to see them they seem a little over done, particularly their heads.
The film leaves a lot of unanswered questions such as where the creatures have come from and how they managed to overrun the earth with all our technology, but overall, this was a good movie that was well acted and gave me quite a scare.
In cinemas 5th April 2018
A Quiet Place
95 Minutes
Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski
Directed by: John Krasinski
