Title: A Quiet Place
Director: John Krasinski
Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
Length: 90 minutes
Certificate: 15
Written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and further developed by John Krasinski, who also directs, A Quiet Place is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, full of suspense and horror.
Focussing on just one family, somewhere in America, we follow them in their daily lives where they must be silent at all times to avoid sightless, ravenous, creatures that hunt them by sound alone. Are they aliens, come to Earth as invaders, or some sort of mutated animal? Likely the former, but we never find out. But they are aggressive and singleminded in their hunting and killing of humans.
Mother and father, Evelyn (Blunt) and Lee (Krasinski) live in a smallholding in the countryside with their three children. Why have they managed to survive when almost everyone else is dead? Their daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) is hearing impaired and they communicate by sign language meaning that they are able to remain silent more effectively than most people.
Blunt and Krasinski have wonderful onscreen chemistry, which despite them being real life husband and wife should not be taken for granted. This is their first time working together and Krasinski was full of praise for this talented wife.
Simmonds is fantastic and formed a genuine friendship with Noah Jupe (who plays her onscreen brother) handpicked for the role, he is also excellent. Simmonds actually taught Jupe how to sign and they created a strong bond on set that gives their onscreen relationship real substance. In fact the four central characters are all phenomenally talented and work tremendously well together creating a feeling of real family that most films lack. There’s warmth between them, they care for each other and most importantly we care about them and what happens to them. We feel their pain, their suffering and their sacrifice.
Krasinski directs the action with aplomb without ever being needlessly flashy, he keeps the focus on family. Marco Beltrami’s score is designed to heighten the tension but is used carefully and sparingly.
A Quiet Place is a superb sci-fi, horror, thriller that takes influences from several genres and blends them together to come up with something very special. There is discussion of a possible sequel, but I think this film stands alone as a perfect story and should be left as it is, as an excellent example of how when perfect directing, acting and storytelling come together something special can be created.
