Easily the biggest monster movie-themed horror hit in many a moon(*), A Quiet Place took the box office by storm earlier this year, garnering both critical acclaim and audience raves. But was the hype justified? Yes and no, I'd have to say, ultimately.
The story is simplicity personified. A family struggles to survive in a world in which the slightest significant sound can alert murderous creatures to their presence. Said creatures have already seemingly wiped out most of the world's population, from the looks of it. Making matters worse, the mom of the family (Emily Blunt) is expecting a new baby.
That's about it, really. The bulk of the film, by nature of its very premise, takes place in relative silence, a clever gambit which forces the audience to adopt a similar approach, and delivers the goods whenever the people on the screen "break the rules" and make too much noise, sending the creatures scrambling after them.
Of course, this approach is nothing new in horror, where a lot of the most effective scares happen in relative silence as well, with someone- or something- jumping out when one least expects it, often accompanied by a loud noise and/or musical "sting," a la the shrieking strings of the infamous Psycho theme when Norman Bates strikes.
However, I can't quite recall a movie that was actually built around this particular conceit, which is exactly what sets this film apart from the pack. While, granted, a lot of its effectiveness probably depends on the audience you watch it with- I can see where a group of, say, unruly teenagers that were giggling or making comments throughout the movie would completely ruin it, for instance- under the right circumstances, the film can be an extremely clever example of how to manipulate an audience.
Think of the Paranormal Activity movies. While some find them intolerably boring, and indeed, not a lot really happens for much of any given film in the franchise's running time, when they work, they work like gangbusters because they cleverly get the audience into a particular frame of mind that's almost Zen-like, and then, when one least expects it...
A Quiet Place is definitely like that, and if you're lucky enough to have a game audience, then I can see where it would be a pretty riveting communal experience. But end up with the wrong kind of audience, and yeah, the film would be completely ruined. As such, a lot depends on the circumstances in which you see this one.
The good thing is, if you opted to skip it in theaters, you're in luck, as you can control the "audience" factor considerably more. Granted, most of us have that annoying friend that likes to crack wise during horror movies- I've probably been that friend on a few occasions, TBH- but maybe don't invite them over the first time you watch this one, for maximum effectiveness.
The film is basically a mood piece, when you get down to it. There's not much going on in the way of plot, aside from the father (John Krasinski, who also directed and revised the script) trying to figure out how to defeat the beasties by determining their weaknesses, while at the same time attempting to contact others via radio "S.O.S." signals.
Other than that, it's just the family going from place to place trying not to get killed, which is easier said than done when you're dealing with a bunch of kids who don't quite know the meaning of being completely quiet AT ALL TIMES. Perhaps needless to say, not everyone makes it through to the end.
In fact, that's one of the things I did love about the film- it rarely pulls its punches. People die, and it's not just random people the family runs into along the way, either. We're talking major characters.
It's also pretty relentless. Every time the energy started to lag somewhat... BAM! Something would happen when you least expected it. And I mean that BAM literally, as, like I mentioned, it's making noise that attract these monsters.
If I was a parent, I would probably use this movie as a way of teaching kids to behave themselves- "If you don't shut up, the Quiet Place monsters will get you!" (Probably just as well I'm not a parent, lol.) But sometimes kids can't help themselves, and that's where the fun begins in this movie.
Indeed, you find yourself wanting someone to screw up and drop something or what have you, just so something will happen, and it usually does happen, just when you've started to relax and let your guard down somewhat.
I also dug the way Krasinski lays down "traps" that you just know are going to pay off later, i.e. the wife's pregnancy, or that stray nail on the stairs that you just know someone is going to step on and cry out when they do, least of all with everyone running around barefoot all the time.
Indeed, the world-building here is really clever as well, as Krasinski has to say so much with so little. Given that the film is practically a silent movie- the characters more often than not communicate via sign language, save a few key passages- the director has to show it, not say it, more often than not.
Interestingly, Krasinski is not a fan of horror movies, and, as I was reading in several books about the horror genre lately (Shock Value and Reel Terror, both of which I highly recommend), it's interesting how some of the most classic horror films were made by people who don't normally do the genre, and in some cases, actively dislike it.
For instance, there's Richard Donner (The Omen), William Friedkin (The Exorcist), Stanley Kubrick (The Shining), Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) and, to a certain extent, Roman Polanksi (the so-called "Apartment Trilogy"- Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant) and Brian DePalma (Carrie and Sisters, for sure, but fans debate whether thrillers like Dressed to Kill or Body Double really qualify).
Oddly enough, this unfamiliarity and even outright derision of the horror genre can lead to some very effective films, often because the filmmakers themselves aren't too familiar with the tropes of the genre, which lead them to inadvertently avoid the very pitfalls that those who do love it often fall into.
There's a temptation to adopt the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy amongst even the most die-hard horror fans, when sometimes, it's outside-the-box thinking that's required to do something new with it.
For instance, George A. Romero used to work for Fred Rogers (aka "Mr. Rogers") and make commercials. He only did a horror film because it was cheap and could be done on the fly, but it was precisely that level of disinterest that led him to make a horror film that broke all the rules at the time. If you don't know the rules in the first place, how do you know if you're breaking them?
Krasinski stumbled upon the script via, of all people, Michael Bay, whose production company, Platinum Dunes, specializes in horror films. I assume I don't have to point out the irony of someone who specializes in making movies that are deafening in the extreme picking up the rights to a script that is the polar opposite, but that's the world we live in at the moment- full of contradictions.
Anyway, Krasinski read the script and was both horrified and fascinated by it. His wife, actress Emily Blunt, felt the same way, and encouraged him to take on the project as a director. As he and his wife were expecting a child at the time, he rewrote the script with that in mind, and the project was given the green light, with Blunt opting to co-star with her husband as one of the two main leads- their first film together as a couple- after she fell in love with the resulting script.
Much like Stephen King before him, with books like Cujo, Pet Sematary and IT all revolving around kids and the fear of something bad happening to them and written while King was becoming a parent himself at the time, Krasinski connected with the material, which likewise revolved around two parents trying to protect their kids at all costs.
Emphasizing that aspect of the script, he honed the story to focus almost exclusively on the family, which proved to be a wise move. About the only complaint I have about the movie is that it ends rather abruptly, literally in the middle of a big action sequence, which basically screams for a sequel.
That's kind of annoying, and precisely the sort of thing that made audiences so pissed about, say, The Devil Inside, which ended with direction to go to a website for more, leaving the audiences feeling cheated, needless to say. This film doesn't quite go that far, but it does end in the middle of an action sequence, so...
The thing is, it would have been one thing if the movie was overlong, but it clocks in just around an hour-and-twenty-minutes before the dreaded slow-crawl credits kick in, padding out the running time to the more acceptable ninety minutes. That's sort of a cheat, and it did leave a bad taste in my mouth for what was otherwise a quite enjoyable horror flick.
That said, overall I would recommend it, especially with a game audience or, even better, watching it alone or with your significant other, maybe. The quieter you can get your surroundings, the better. The creatures, always important in a monster movie, are also pretty cool, and only shown briefly at the end, a la the first Alien, rather than extensively throughout. Before that, we just get glimpses.
Making what amounts to a silent horror film only punctuated by loud noises and the like is a really clever conceit and it basically makes the movie stand out from the crowd as a direct result. Kudos to the sound department for really making the soundtrack of this one stand out in a big way, and to Krasinski for taking the ball and running with it.
The stuff I like about the film definitely outweighs what I don't, especially the fact that Krasinski doesn't back down from delivering the horror goods, despite his inexperience with the genre. But like I said, sometimes what seems like a negative on paper can be a positive under the right circumstances.
A shout-out as well to writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who wrote the original script, which was reportedly considered as another entry in the Cloverfield universe, but which Platinum Dunes wisely saw as its own thing. While the ending is a bit of a cheat, at least the movie was a hit, thus ensuring we'll get to find out what happens next on down the line soon enough.
Regardless, maybe the success of A Quiet Place will lead to a resurgence in monster movies. Now THAT would be something worth screaming out loud about!
By all means, check this one out, but be forewarned about that ending...
Emoji Review: 👪👾😱👦🚀💥👾😧💀👪➖1💨⌚🏡💡⚠👾👪😱👨💀👪➖2👦👧🚙💨👩👾😨🛀👶💨👇🏡👪👾🔫💥💀👾👾👾👾👾👾👾💩💤
*Side note: For those of you who are tempted to bring up the Godzilla reboot or the Pacific Rim movies, know that I don't really consider them to be horror movies, though I do love me some Kaiju flicks.
As for the prequel to John Carpenter's seminal The Thing- it tanked at the box office. I also hear good things about The Void, but it wasn't really a hit, either.
That said, I would consider 2006's Korean monster movie The Host to qualify as a big hit, even if it was mostly overseas, and I just loved that one. I can't think of any others off the top of my head in the last decade or so, but by all means, list some below if you can!
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