A Quiet Place

In my review for Blockers the other day, I listed horror as one of the two genres that I usually skip out on at the theater, and I did that for a very special reason. Horror has had so many ups and downs through the history of cinema that I find myself quite bored with the genre in general, and the past decade or so of horror films has been so bland to quite terrible, in all honesty. I'm quite tired of the constant jump scare fest that is horror today, but luckily it seems to be getting better in the past few years.

But the main special reason I wanted to talk about it was for this film, A Quiet Place. I had been told by many that this was a classically good flick, filled with tense moments and all around good horror. But, being me, I was skeptic as always. Surely the directorial debut of Office alumni John Krasinski couldn't be this spectacular right? Boy, was I wrong. So, so wrong.

Everything that A Quiet Place does is exactly what any film in this genre should do. It doesn't waste time setting up the stakes or giving us backstory. Every jump scare is built up with sheer tension and comes at a proper time, rather than being wasted on something menial like a character touching another character's shoulder or something. The stakes are real, evidenced in the very beginning scene, for christ's sakes. It actually scares you. The story itself is nothing really major, if you take it apart: a family just trying to survive an onslaught of creatures who are attracted to sound and nothing else. The fact that it takes such a single-file story and makes it work so well, is what makes the film so memorable.

But how it treats that story is really only one part of what makes A Quiet Place so good. There's also a really brilliant technical side to it, which is really brought to life by the cast put in place here. It's no secret that a good portion of this film is portrayed in sheer silence, in fact I'd wager like 75% of the film involves no real character dialogue outside of sign language. Even while staying silent, these actors do such a brilliant job portraying real stress and real fear without a single peep out of their mouth. Of course when they do speak, it's also pretty good, but that doesn't really matter here.

The visual aspect is also really well-done. Krasinski obviously has taken notes in preparation, providing some beautifully shot and directed scenes which add to the tension. The visual effects of the monsters featured have real depth and detail, making them all the more scarier. The coloring of the film is one of darkness and depression, even if there is some light to the situation. It feels cold in the film, just as it should be, and I appreciate that.

A Quiet Place surprised me wholeheartedly by being clever, properly done horror, a much needed change to the genre. I'm so glad to be wrong about this, and for it I'm awarding A Quiet Place a 9.3/10, making it, thus far, my highest ranked film of the year, and one that I can expect to talk about again in my top ten for the year.