A Quiet Place is produced by Michael Bay and directed by John Krasinski. (IMDb)
By ARIA SALESSI
Staff Writer
If they hear you, they hunt you. Imagine living in a world in which making the smallest of sounds could get you killed. A family of five experiences this nightmare in A Quiet Place, written and directed by John Krasinski. The film stars John Krasinski as Lee, Emily Blunt as Evelyn, Noah Jupe as Marcus, Cade Woodward as Beau and Millicent Simmonds as Reagan. Released on April 6, Krasinski brought silence and dread to audiences that viewed this film.
Ten minutes into the film, audiences are already experiencing a terrifying event.Beau, a clumsy child with a toy rocket in his hand, finds batteries on his walk home with his family. As they are walking, Beau suddenly turns his toy on, creating a loud noise in the silent void. Lee immediately starts running toward Beau to remove the toy from his hand, but unfortunately, a creature leaps out of the woods, snatching Beau. I never expected Beau to die so soon in the movie, sending sorrowful shocks in the hearts of audience members. The scene was the first time audiences got to actually see the ferocious creatures blindly lurking.
One of my favorite aspects of the film was how Krasinski incorporated the ways that the family would be silent in their lives. For example, the family eats out of lettuce wraps rather than plates, plays Monopoly with cloth instead of metal pieces and pours sand on the ground in an effort to muffle the sounds of their barefoot footsteps. These small and creative routines truly encompass the sheer enormity of thought that Krasinski put into his film. These extensive precautions that the family adheres to amplifies the threat that the creatures pose to their imminent safety.
During the second half of A Quiet Place, I found myself holding my breath during many scenes. One of the most intense moments was when Evelyn’s water breaks and she starts going into labor. Not only was she in labor in a home of creatures, but she also mistakenly steps on a large nail that plunges into her calf. Blunt has to battle the urge to scream, which is such a terrifying experience. No matter how much she wanted to scream, she knew that she could not because of her responsibility to her child. This one scene was something I truly will never forget in a film. The suspense was layered perfectly, and there was never a moment I felt safe with Blunt’s position.
To complement the suspense in the film, the acting was extraordinary. While Krasinski, Blunt, and Cade all had outstanding performances, I believe Simmond’s acting stood out the most. The scenes where her hearing aid would make an ear piercing noise made me cringe from her pain. The looks of sheer horror and pain she would make during these events made me question how she hasn’t been cast in many other films. Throughout the movie, we also see her portray emotions other than fear that could lead her to be cast in a variety of films. A Quiet Place is a horror film that even people who aren’t fans of horror will appreciate. It wasn’t simply a movie of terror, but it played off of such a simple idea and transformed it into a production that was devoid of cliche, traditional horror tropes.
