John Krasinski’s brilliantly suspenseful thriller is bound to have you hooked from beginning to end. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, A Quiet Place focuses on the resourceful Abbott family. It is the year 2020 and most of the earth's population have been wiped out. True to its title, the film begins with Lee and Evelyn Abbott, along with their three children, silently padding around an abandoned shop, searching for supplies. Their youngest child’s interest in a battery-operated rocket toy causes the rest of the family immediate alarm. We quickly learn that, in this world, a child’s toy rocket engenders the same amount of fear in people as a ticking bomb would. However, what are the family afraid of exactly?
Blind predators with highly advanced hearing stalk the land and if they hear you, they hunt you. Therefore, to survive you must remain silent; a battery-operated children’s toy could result in your death.
In this terrifying world, the Abbott family have a slight advantage. Their oldest daughter is deaf, meaning that the family are adept at communicating in sign language. However, the family face a new predicament. Evelyn (played by Emily Blunt) is heavily pregnant, putting not only her life but also the rest of her family in danger. The prospects of silently giving birth without any anaesthetic and keeping a new-born baby quiet are nearly impossible.
With almost no dialogue throughout, it is necessary that the film’s visuals tell almost all of the story. Krasinski’s storytelling is very economical; no shot is superfluous, yet there are no gaping holes in the plot. Scenes of suspense are beautifully balanced out by emotionally-saturated moments. Therefore, in spite of the minimal dialogue, Krasinski manages to get the audience actively invested in the fates of his characters.
Whilst countless horror films have explored the idea that silence ensures survival, the concept of this film nonetheless retains something excitingly novel about it, as Krasinski pushes this idea to the extreme. Modern life is so noisy that it is hard to imagine living in a world almost completely devoid of any sound. We rarely encounter genuine silence; what we perceive to be silence probably consists of at least some background noise. Therefore, Krasinski challenges us to imagine whether we could survive under such difficult circumstances. Moreover, sound makes up such a huge part of our being – it is a fundamental part of how we express ourselves. However, in this film, an intrinsic part of the human condition is weaponised. This forces the audience to question whether it would be possible to really be ourselves if we were denied the right to make noise and whether fear would be a powerful enough stimulant to ensure you remain silent for your own survival.
4/5 stars.
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