A QUIET PLACE
US, 2018, 90 minutes, Colour.
Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe.
Directed by John Krasinski.
It is difficult to find the right words to recommend A Quiet Place to an audience that does not usually like horror films. Recommending it to an audience which does like horror films, the best thing is to do is to highlight the monstrous creatures and the special effects, their attack on the humans.
John Krasinski is best known as a television actor, especially for the American version of The Office. In films, he has a good range, from romantic comedies to war films. In real life he is married to Emily Blunt. They worked together for this film, Krasinski developing the story, cowriting the screenplay, taking the central role as the father of the family, and showing skill in directing. Emily Blunt, always a strong screen presence, plays the mother.
This is a post-apocalyptic story. However, there is practically no explanation of the situations, the background of the disaster. We see newspaper headlines highlighting news that people are fleeing New York. The film opens in an abandoned countryside, looking attractive, but in no way populated. The family go into a deserted supermarket, stocking up on supplies.
But, there is eerie silence.
There is a jump-out-of-your seat-moment concerning the youngest child in the family who has picked up a toy and started to make a sound. The father takes the battery out of the plane and then leads the whole family, single file, further out into the woods. When the little boy puts the battery in again, the father is anxious, runs to save his boy but…
The situation is that there are monsters around. They are attracted by noise and attack the humans. Which means then that not only is the countryside eerily deserted but it is eerily quiet. No one can speak. They have to tread softly. And to communicate they have to use sign language. In fact, the oldest daughter is deaf and mute – played by Millicent Simmonds who in real life is also hearing-impaired. The younger brother is played by Noah Dupe who was the little boy’s friend in the film, Wonder.
Eventually, the family settle in a country house with a big barn, the father setting up protection, a string of lights, a warning system when they turn red, and continuing to experiment with implants for his daughter’s hearing.
Though without sounds and talk, life continues in a somewhat ordinary vein, the mother teaching her son maths, the father working, his taking his son fishing and going to a waterfall where, in fact, they can talk and even shout, the daughter, however, feeling alienated. She feels she is not loved, has moments of resentment, goes out to the memorial place for her little brother.
As they have lived some time and in the countryside, we see that the wife is pregnant.
This means that the film has set up the situation well for some kind of final confrontation. It is heightened when the creatures invade the house, the little girl seems lost, father and son are returning from the waterfall, the mother’s waters break and birth is imminent.
Horror fans will appreciate seeing the vicious monsters, their sweeping, stalking, threatening brother and sister in a corn silo. Other audiences who are experiencing the film as a terror film, identifying with the family, may prefer that the monsters were suggested atmospherically rather than their being so ugly and visible.
The film has received very good reviews from the critics and, within 10 days had made $50 million at the US box office. Not bad for a 90 minute film, a terror drama with touches of horror, the story of a family in peril.
1. The title? Expectations?
2. The touches of horror? But the film as an experience in terror?
3. The premise, no back story, the monsters terrorising New York City, attracted by sound? The visualising of the monsters? The sense of menace, fear? The atmosphere of quiet, selflessness?
4. The American countryside, the supermarket, the local bridge, the house, the interiors, the basement? Exteriors, the lights and protection, the rockets? The silo and the corn?
5. The portrait of the parents, their children? In the supermarket, getting supplies, the deaf daughter, the use of sign language? The boy, with the plane, the batteries, his father taking them out, his playing and putting them back in, the monster swooping? The sense of blame for the mother not carrying him? The father’s sense of guilt, responsibility?
6. The signing of the number of days, the family isolated, the mother becoming pregnant, the daily work, teaching her son, the various chores? The father, managing, his electronic skills in the basement, setting up protection?
7. Loving family, Regan and her age, her anger, wanting to go out, her being protected by her father, feeling that she was unloved and untrusted? Her deafness, communication? Sulking, going to the bridge, the memento of her little brother? The dark, the encounter with Marcus, their being together, the dangers, silence? His reassuring her that she was loved? The silo, his falling into the corn, the door falling, her jump, protecting him? Her hearing aid, the effect on the monster? Going to the truck, the attack, the sense of menace? The hearing aid and sound and the solution against the creatures?
8. The mother, ordinary, pregnant, her waters breaking, the nail and her foot, going to the bath, being terrorised? The birth, not screaming? Her husband rescuing her? Taking her to the shelter, with the baby, the water coming in, the monster in the water? Her getting a husband to promise to take care of the children?
9. The father, his skills, protector? The basement and the electronic experiments, the hearing aid for his daughter? Taking his son fishing, reassuring his son, to the waterfall, being able to cry out and talk? The return, his wife putting on the red danger lights, his discovering her, the birth of the baby, searching for his children, the confrontation with the monsters, declaration of his love for his daughter? Sacrificing himself by shouting?
10. Marcus, his age, fears, the daily lessons in maths, going fishing with his father, apprehensive, the waterfall, the experience, shouting? His father trusting him, setting off the rockets? Falling into the silo, almost drowning, his sister rescuing him? Their experience in the truck? Holding the baby during the final attack?
11. The sense of menace, fear, silence and sound, the creatures and their presence, swooping and destroying? The illustration of the man in the woods and his shouting? The hearing aid, the effect on the creatures? In the silo, the truck, the basement? The mother shooting the creature?
12. The hearing aid technology and a solution against the creatures? What future?
