The horror genre isn’t quite what it once was, with endless clichéd projects being released year after year, and none coming close to the golden age of horror during the 1970s and 80s. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any good horror films still being produced, and A Quiet Place is a testament to that fact.
A Quiet Place is a 2018 horror move directed by John Krasinski, who, along with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, also wrote the screenplay. The film stars Krasinski in the lead roll along Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmonds.
The film drew inspiration from many of the genre’s most classic films, such as Alien and No Country For Old Men, and most of the filming took place in up-state New York during from May to November 2017. It’s a solid watch and provides enough to distract most people from their phones, even if they’re playing a game of the best online pokies Australia.
A Breakdown Of The Plot
The story of A Quiet Place revolves around a small family that live sometime in the future, where most of the planet’s animal and human populations have been completely wiped out by extra-terrestrial creatures that have hypersensitive hearing, and attack any sources of noise. We are introduced to the Abbot family that consists of the husband Lee, his wife Evelyn, deaf daughter Regan, and their two sons Marcus and Beau.
They spend their days scavenging for supplies in a dead world, and live together on a large farm that they have built up to be as silent as possible. But the creatures are ever-present, and they find themselves in imminent danger when Evelyn, who is pregnant, goes into labour while the rest of the family is out.
A Unique Antagonist
The creatures in A Quiet Place are reminiscent of the Xenomorphs from Alien: hulking and powerful, but always silent and always on the prowl. Their hypersensitive hearing means that they are able to strike at any time at the first sound of noise, making them an intimidating enemy in a world where noise is often unavoidable and ultimately inevitable.
Like many films that tend to receive wide acclaim, A Quiet Place does a thorough job of world building, creating a planet where danger is always a moment away, and it’s apparent the amount of effort the family needs to go through on a daily basis to remain quiet at all times.
An Equally Unique Premise
What sets A Quiet Place apart from most modern horror films is, rather intelligently, the same as the premise of the film itself. Where many of today’s films revolve around victims being chased down by a murderous lunatic with plenty of screaming,
A Quiet Place is the polar opposite, preferring to build its tension through visuals. Dialogue is understandably at a premium throughout the film, but for the most part it’s not needed – everything the viewer needs to know is conveyed through expression and clever cinematography. A Quiet Place provides a quiet, chilling break for those that need something fresh from a horror movie.