On the surface ‘A Quiet Place’ looks like another B-listed, low-budget horror firmly geared towards the scarefest demographic. Starring two of Hollywood’s hottest names, this is in fact the first time real life husband and wife John Krasinski and Emily Blunt have worked together on a feature film. Krasinksi reportedly had in mind another actress for the role of his on-screen wife, until Blunt got her hands on the script and talked him into casting her instead. Their children are played by rising stars Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe. Set in 2020, nearly all of Earth’s population has been destroyed by sightless creatures with hypersensitive hearing that attack anything that makes audible noise. The film charts their struggles to survive and maintain a ‘normal’ lifestyle in what appears to be dire circumstances.
It’s no big secret that I’m a novice to the horror genre, I’m easily spooked by anything remotely connected to the supernatural, and I’m quite jumpy by nature. So was ‘A Quiet Place’ worth the price of cinema nowadays? Yes it was, for I was pleasantly surprised by the acute level of subtlety in the film. Categorically it’s a horror that somewhat abides by the conventions of its genre, but it’s also an intelligently written and intensely absorbing watch that we can forgive its unanswered plot holes. Modern horror films made on a budget like this one generally rely on cheap scares and terribly unrealistic looking blood to sustain the interest of its viewership. What grabs our attention in its shorter running time is the convincing chemistry between the cast and their intuitive understanding of what one another is thinking. The family’s routine attempts to avoid making any kind of sound day in and day out heighten our awareness of our surroundings and make us wonder how we would ever survive in a post-apocalyptic state of such fear and paranoia. I particularly liked the reference to cultural anxieties around disenfranchised America in the deserted town setting, for this subtext adds provocative layers to the average alien takeover film.
Krasinski’s script reads as a very clever piece of writing, as it’s the small details that establish it as a subtle and quietly unnerving horror. Throughout the film not one of the characters wears shoes at any point, and Evelyn (played superbly by Emily Blunt) walks around the house almost on tiptoe when doing laundry. The cast have convincingly mastered the art of making their sign language and vigilant movements look second nature. The exact biological species of the creatures is left unknown, though it’s implied that they are a form of extra-terrestrial being. At first glance it looks like Ridley Scott’s alien has been put in a processor and mixed with a mummified bog body. But it’s not the freaky creatures which draw us in, as the meticulous camerawork and loving bonds shared by the family make us care for them and root for another day survived. The unorthodox narrative structure gives ‘A Quiet Place’ rare depth for what is seen by many as a worn-thin genre.
HKFilmBlog 