Hush! Be quiet! Shhhhh! These common phrases heard in movie theaters carry more weight in John Krasinski’s directorial debut, “A Quiet Place”, a film with virtually no spoken dialogue.
“A Quiet Place” takes place in the post-apocalyptic year of 2020, in a world where a race of blind extraterrestrial creatures with phenomenal hearing have nearly wiped out all of Earth’s population. It is assumed that small pockets of people exist across the planet, but only the Abbott family is seen. The film follows the Abbott family as they struggle to survive and stay quiet in this world where the blind, yet always-hearing extraterrestrials are waiting to pounce.
The family is able to communicate and survive without talking by communicating through sign language, which they know due to their deaf daughter, Regan. The Abbotts have also become self-sufficient with their own functioning farm and homestead. Everything is based around remaining as quiet as possible, avoiding detection from the creatures within the movie.
The aliens in “A Quiet Place” are pretty horrifying. They are just a few steps below Xenomorph-from-“Alien”-horrifying. The creatures, though blind, have phenomenal hearing, able to hear noise from miles away. In addition, they are shown to have bullet-proof armored skin which renders them almost invincible. The film does a good job at establishing what the aliens can and cannot hear: they are not attracted to running water such as a waterfall, light breathing or footsteps, yet they are attracted to sounds like glass breaking.
The best scene in the movie was an argument in sign language and facial expressions only. It felt as if they were shouting loudly at each other, yet the only sounds heard came from ambient noise. The viewer is drawn into this universe so much that it feels as though every action of their own must be monitored so as to not make any noise.
No one character stole the show, but John Krasinski needs to be applauded for his acting, writing and directing. His character, Lee Abbott, is a survivalist who we assume may have had prior military experience based on his conduct throughout the film. While Abbott clearly understands how to survive in the wilderness, Krasinski’s emotion paints a portrait of a man scared for the well-being of his family, despite him not actually acknowledging that within the film.
Another fantastic performance was that of Millicent Simmons, who played Regan Abbott. Simmons, who is deaf in real life, provided an air of authenticity surpassing Marlee Matlin (also deaf) in “Children of a Lesser God.” Simmons is able to show the audience the horror of the devastation to Earth’s population through the eyes of a child. Despite being the only character who is deaf, she exudes a sort of relatability and charisma that helps the viewers through this suspenseful film.
“A Quiet Place” was executed in an almost minimalist aspect. The amazing thing about this movie was that it requires very little writing for dialogue. Little thought had to be placed in what the characters say to each other because each character signed as few words as possible and each bit of dialogue was often succinct and to the point.
My one bit of criticism (if you even want to call it that) was that I wasn’t that scared during the movie. It had some suspenseful moments, but I would classify this movie as more of a thriller. That’s not even a criticism — that’s just how I reacted to the film. It bears a lot of resemblance to “Alien,” but lacks the aspect of sheer terror. I’m sure for many readers, you will be scared out of your mind watching this movie, and that’s its purpose. However, although I did feel it lacked certain aspects of a horror film, my enjoyment of watching it was not hindered.
“A Quiet Place” was a great movie with not much lacking. Everything was set up and resolved and there was fantastic chemistry between the cast members, which is impressive considering there was next to no dialogue. This movie is a glowing example of how film can be an art form.