In a year where the most dominating movies at the box office happen to all be comic book films, it's nice to see a smaller budget film that's ambitious and totally confident in it's storytelling abilities breakout and become a success of its own both commercially and exceeding expectations in terms of how good it can be. A Quiet Place happens to be one of the years breakthrough hits and is sure to end up being one of 2018's greatest success when the year draws to a close. Easily the most successful horror film since last years IT, A Quiet Place is a horror flick that not only is entertaining to watch but surprises on many levels with how well done and crafted it is. It's nice to see a horror film come around that exercises both brilliance and creativity while showing an actors true talent both as the star of the film as well as being the director and co-scriptwriter with John Krasinski hitting a home run with A Quiet Place.
A Quiet Place is a horror film that's exciting from start go finish while moving at a brisk pace while allowing you to be drawn into the films nightmarish world while becoming emotionally invested in it's characters. A Quiet Place is a combination of films such as 10 Cloverfield Lane mixed with a touch of Signs mixed with The Road with all three influences morphing into it's own story that deserves major points for creativity, imagination, brilliance, cleverness, and ultimately managing to be surprising to the audience with it's twist and turns. The story for A Quiet Place takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing. The concept of a creature with extra special hearing searching for people while forcing them to use sigh language to communicate is both an original and genius concept that actually manages to bring something new to the horror genre. While it can be argued that the post-apocalyptic aspect of the story is a tad familiar to audiences as it's been done before with numerous other movies, A Quiet Place takes an already familiar setting yet delivers an engaging twist to the genre while allowing it's cast and filmmakers to rise to the occasion with their creative skills. John Krasinski shows audiences that there is much more to him than just a comedic actor and can actually craft a striking horror film that makes the audience think while placing them in the scenario presented in the story.
As far as performances go, Krasinski is terrific here as he shows a great deal of emotional depth to his role as a father both dealing with grief while trying to protect his family from the outside forces pursuing them. Emily Blunt is terrific in the role of the wife and mother also dealing with grief and struggling to keep her family together while dealing with her pregnancy. The young child actors deliver strong performances bringing both believability to their roles while making you care about their safety during scenes where they come into contact with the creature. The films opening sequence beautifully sets up the tone for the rest of the film establishing the post-apocalyptic nature of the story as well as the silent family sticking together while being forced to communicate through sigh language, and the opening sequence ending with a shocking revelation that commands the audiences attention by the time the main title appears.
In terms of writing and directing, John Kransinski writes the film beautifully in a way where not too much information is given about the backstory of the family nor what's happening, he gives the audience just enough information through news clippings and selected dialogue to make everything clear while forcing the audience to never take their eyes off the screen when the actors communicate through silent language. Such a move would normally prove to be a risky one by Hollywood's standards but here it's presented in a way that it's essential to the storyline and is done exceptionally well showcasing brilliance on the filmmakers end as well as their firm grip on the story. The films Cinematography and Art-Set Decoration is effective enough to convince the audience that the world their seeing has been overrun by monsters with enhanced hearing making the scenario both frightening and never tiresome to watch. The best thing that can be said about this film outside of it's stellar performances and solid production values, is the level of brains and intelligence that was poured into telling this story. What could've easily ended up being another generic horror film or been there and done that post-apocalyptic tale turns out to be that of a pleasant surprise that shows the horror genre still has some tricks up it's sleeve while being inspirational to other filmmakers in showing that creativity is not fully absent just yet.
In an era where most breakthrough films or blockbusters are normally sequels, comic book movies, and franchises, it's nice to see a film with a reasonably creative concept with a healthy dose of originality take the center stage in showing that there is still room for smaller stories that can have a significant impact on it's audience long after the credits roll. Despite the movie being only 90 mins, the film does a very good job of pulling the audience into this world and bringing them along the journey this helpless family endures while making them become invested with them while generating some solid squares and suspense. The creatures intelligent feature is a clever twist with the family forced into being silent proving to be an ingenius twist that is done exceptionally well. A Quiet Place is a horror take that's beautifully written, directed, and acted in a way that makes it feel artfully done. Whereas most horror movies in today's generation rely on jump scares and gore, A Quiet Place shows that you don't need those elements to make a movie scary and sometimes the silence of the moment can genuinely be just as creepy or more. The film is a triumph in the sense that it successfully manages to make the audience care about the characters while making the story both tense and exciting to audiences despite the lack of dialogue. Easily one of the years best films thus far and could actually be good enough to warrant some attention come awards time. For horror fans and audiences, it's the films originality and level of thoughtfulness that went into making it that makes it a unique yet special experience for them. Hopefully the talent that John Kransinski brings to the table with this film both infront and behind the camera will encourage other actors and filmmakers you would least expect to test and discover their own potential.
Final Verdict: See It
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