A Quiet Place is a 2018 film directed by John Krasinski that stars the director himself, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe. The film is about a family that has to live in complete silence without uttering a single sound in order to avoid being killed by blind extraterrestial creatures. The extraterrestial creatures are blind but they can hear so well from far away and they use that as their advantage to hunt.

My General Thoughts:

At November of 2017, I saw this trailer for the first time in theaters while waiting to see the Justice League movie. When I saw the trailer for the first time, I was completely drawn to the movie. It got me really hyped and I honestly couldn’t wait to see the film in April. My hype was definitely worth it because I LOVED this film. It’s only April, but this film is already one of my favorite films of 2018. I would say its currently my favorite film of 2018 but I’m sure another upcoming movie will take that spot. However this movie will be in my top 3 favorite films of 2018 for sure. It was nice to know that this is the first film John Krasinski and Emily Blunt star in a film together since they are married in real life. The nice part is that they are husband and wife in the film as well. I’m a fan of horror films but not a big fan. I do enjoy the genre since I have plenty of favorite horror films. I realize that this is the first horror film I’m reviewing on my blog so that’s interesting.

The Positives:

There are so many great things about this film. The  film never gets boring and you are immediatly drawn to the story from beginning to end. The film does a great job setting up the plot right from the beginning. The family in the story gets through their daily living by communicating through sign language. You see this right away in the beginning. I would say the film is 90% non verbal dialogue and that’s one of the best things that make this film superb. The sign language communication the family uses with one another in this film actually works so well with the story and it’s tone. I usually say that great verbal lines from movies are one of the reasons why movies are great. However this was my first movie that I’ve seen that has only 10% of verbal dialogue and what I’ve learned is that movies can have other ways to express itself without the use verbal dialogue. This movie perfectly did that.  Movies can be great with verbal dialogue and also great without verbal dialogue (if it’s done right).

The movie did a great job with the intensity too. As I said before, there is never a dull moment and there no pacing issues with the film in my opinion. The plot itself of this horror film is unique too. Being in danger of being killed by extraerrestial creatures if you make a single sound is truly original and orginality is always a plus. I don’t mind seeing the same formula in movies but only if it fits with the movie as a whole. It just shouldn’t be a ripoff. But to me originality will never be an issue if any director brings it up to the plate.

Another thing that I loved about this film is that there is drama between the characters too! The drama centers mostly around the daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and her father Lee (John Krasinski). You see Regan in most of the movie feeling guilty and responsible about her little brother’s death who died by one of the extraterrestial creatures in the beginning. She gave him the batteries for the toy rocket behind her parents’ back and he turned it on which led to his death. Her dad tries to give her emotional support and try to reason with her that it was not her fault but Regan was still fed up. In the middle act of the film, there’s a scene where the son Marcus (Noah Jupe) advises his dad to tell Regan that he loves her no matter what near a flowing river that had a waterfall. This was one of the first scenes that included actual verbal dialogue without the use of sign language since they had the freedom to talk freely due to the loud waterfall. It was one of the best scenes of the film. Lee took his son’s advice in the turning point of the film. He was in a situation where he had to sacrifice his own life to save his kids and before he did, he told Regan he loved her through sign language. Then he intentionally lets out a scream which led to his death. That is probably my favorite part of the movie because I think that scene shows that this is a horror movie but also it’s a drama type of movie that has its heartfelt moments. John Krasinski took the horror genre into a different level and it was executed flawlessly.

Regan has a special type of hearing implant that tries to help her hear better. Her father boosts up the signal of the implant with unused radio parts. But another plot twist in the film is that her implant can be used as a weapon against the extraterrestial creatures. The implant can give off a high screeching sound that irritates and takes the creatures off guard. So that is another reason why Regan’s dad has been making different implants so he could see which one will be effective against the creatures. It was not just for Regan to hear better. Regan discovers this at the final act of the film and uses this as an advantage. Once her mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt) sees that the creature is taken off guard and is vulnerable, she kills the creature with a shotgun. The film ends with a few more creatures headed to the family’s farm and the last shot shows Evelyn and her kids being prepared for their arrival since they know their weakness now. Like I said before, the film is 100% orginal when it comes to the plot, the twists, and the solution.

The characters in the film are really well developed and you never really have any issue with them. I love Emily Blunt as an actress and this is one of my favorite performances by her. The scene where she is giving birth to her newborn son in the bathtub while trying her best not to scream in pain as the extraterrestrial creature was hunting her in her home was one of the intense scenes of the film. When the film showed Evelyn was pregnant in the movie, I was wandering how exactly she’ll give birth in these restricted circumstances. Babies usually cry when they are first born so it added a big mystery to me how it’s gonna go well in this life or death situation they deal with every single day. But seeing the family having a sound proof basement was clever. It’s just a clever original concept in general for the film on how to deal with this life or death situation.

I’ve shockingly never seen any movie that stars John Krasinski so this was my first time seeing him act. He was so terrific in this film and his character would be my favorite character. His character will do anything to protect his family and he’s been in the meantime trying to to find the creatures’ weakness so him and his family can live in peace. I know Krasinski is widely popular in The Office TV Series, so I do want to check that show out one day. But after seeing this film, I can finally say that he’s a great actor. Even though I’ve only now seen one movie of his currently, I’ll take everyone’s word that he’s great in The Office. Looking forward to seeing more of his films. The actors of the children nailed their performances as well. The children characters in the film were suprisingly well matured too for their age but it makes sense too because of the depressing world they currenly live in.

The film has jump scares but they are jump scares that actually work! Throughout the entire movie, you are feeling cautious of when the extraterrestrial creatures will pop up. So when a jump scare occurs, you right away assume that is one of the extra terrestrial creatures that appeared and is about to attack. Nowadays, some horror movies have jump scares in scenes that are completely unnecessary. But this film no doubt used the jump scares at the right moment

The film’s budget is only 17 million and this proves my point again that you don’t always need a big budget film to make a phenomenal movie. I’ve stated this in my The Day The Earth Stood Still film review. Check that film review out if you haven’t! Here is the link: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) – Movie Review

The Negatives:

There are actually no minor and/or major issues that I have with this movie. I only have two nitpicks and one of them is that I wish the film showed us why the extraterrestial creatures are on earth. The second thing is the film never showed us how did this all began. The film focuses mostly on how the family deals and survive with these creatures on earth but it never talks about how and why this is all happening. But these are only nitpicks and this does not impact the movie for what it is. It’s still a great film. I’ve said in some of my previous movie reviews as well that nitpicks never affect a movie since it’s not really an issue for the movie itself.

The Verdict:

After seeing this film and stating that I loved it a lot, it is no doubt that I’m giving this film five out of five stars. The film is a true masterpiece not just in the horror genre but also in general. This is more of a survival type of movie and I’m a sucker for those type of films. This is off topic but one of my favorite survival type of movies is Cast Away starring Tom Hanks. That movie is surely not a horror movie but it’s still awesome. A Quiet Place is one of the best horror films I’ve seen and it easily became one my favorite horror films. It’s right up there with Get Out, Alien,  Halloween,  and tons of other horror classics in my opinion. Hope you enjoyed my review and stay tuned for another review! 🙂