A QUIET PLACE

Set in an apocalyptic world where gangly armed, Venom-faced monsters have dispatched most of the world’s population, A Quiet Place follows a nuclear family that has done its best to survive and thrive on their farmland.

Most Apocalyptic Seige films have a pretty tight beat sheet: hole up, fight, argue with other survivors, theorize, strategize, remain alive. A Quiet Place skips a few of those, but that’s alright. It starts on Day 89 of the invasion and adds an extra wrinkle to the madness: the monsters can’t see anything, but sure as hell can hear everything. If you make too much noise in this world, you end up a warm, fleshy chew-toy. The artistry in the movie comes from the silence that has become commonplace to survive.  

When I watched this in the theater, I realized this could go either way. It’s hard enough to sit an hour-and-a-half without someone in eyesight checking their fucking texts; it’s downright impossible to not to hear someone ask their significant other what they missed when checking said text. I was genuinely surprised my theater was actually quiet during the entire film. My faith in humanity was restored… only to wither the next day when I went to Costco for groceries. Costco: a place where common civility goes to die.

At any rate, A Quiet Place is an effective, stress-ball of a movie. The family dynamic is tight; the kid actors are actually good; Emily Blunt is in it. 

Like every film, it has its problems: how do you build/repair anything without making any noise? Who the fuck allows themselves to bring a baby into this horror-show? Why does every alien/monster nowadays look like that stupid Cloverfield monster? But good chemistry between the actors and some extremely impressive suspense sequences (including an emotional one where the father needs to save his kids) more than makeup for its faults.

Besides, did I mention Emily Blunt’s in it?