

And once the creatures' attention is roused, they have a tendency to stick around until they find the source and tear it to shreds.Ī Quiet Place operates like a more wide-open version of Don't Breathe, the superb Fede Álvarez thriller from two years ago about three robbers invading the home of a blind veteran. Rest assured, the Abbotts have thought it through completely, but even the best-laid plans can't account for, say, an errant nail on the basement stairs or an ill-timed plumbing issue. (Sorting through pills bottles, in this context, is like dangling your toes in piranha-infested waters.) After a deadly encounter, the film cuts to roughly a year later, when the family is holed up in a farmhouse and expecting a new addition.īringing a newborn into a world where noise can kill brings another dimension to the phrase "planned parenthood," and there will no doubt be arguments over the wisdom of Lee and Evelyn's decision, just as there are over victims running up the stairs in a slasher film. The Abbotts-Lee (Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt), and their three children - are first shown tiptoeing around a general store in bare feet, culling medications and other essentials they need for their journey. Krasinski lands on a loud-quiet-loud formula akin to '90s alternative rock: When the chorus kicks in, the jump-scares really pop.īy Day 89 of the invasion, an entire planet of loudmouths has seemingly been winnowed down to one family wandering through a Cormac McCarthy apocalypse. Krasinski starred in Bay's thriller 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, and Bay has returned the favor by allowing him to merge the quiet, character-driven qualities of his indie films with the sledgehammer impact of a mainstream shocker. The unlikely frightmaster responsible for A Quiet Place is John Krasinski, best known as Jim from The Office and less well-known for Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and The Hollars, his mediocre forays into independent filmmaking.
#A quiet place movie#
Movie Reviews '13 Hours' Finds Fodder For Action, But Not Thought, In Recent History That the film comes from Platinum Dunes, the production company of Transformers director Michael Bay, feels like an act of penance from Hollywood's chief supplier of ear-splitting rackets. We're so accustomed to being pummeled into submission by studio soundtracks that the deprivation here has a clarifying effect, reminding us of what's possible when sound and music is carefully placed. There are high-minded ways to interpret A Quiet Place, which develops into an affecting metaphor for the perils of parenthood, but it's effective primarily as a back-to-basics statement of genre fundamentals. When a single utterance or unintended noise means quick and certain death, the audience will hang on every bump of the soundtrack, like a heart patient eyeing an EKG. A Quiet Place is about a wave of blind, deadly arachnid creatures that are sensitive to sound - imagine if the aliens in the Vin Diesel film Pitch Black were deposited on earth, more or less - but it's really about isolating an effect and custom-fitting a story around it. Limitations are a horror filmmaker's best friend, whether it's confining characters to a haunted house, constructing a forest menace out of shaky "found footage," waiting until the third act to show the shark, or starving the senses in order to heighten them.

Dan Andreasen brings exquisite imagination and thoughtful wonder to words that will inspire readers of all ages to seek out their very own quiet place.Quiet On The Set Piece: John Krasinski directs, co-stars, and co-writes A Quiet Place, a thriller that leverages silence for scares. In poetic and gently philosophical prose, acclaimed author Douglas Wood explores what it’s like to find that special place where we all can think our own thoughts and feel our own feelings. Perhaps the very best quiet place of all - the one that’s inside of you. You could look by the sea or in the desert or in a cool dark cave, but if none of these places are right, you could come home and discover another quiet place. Or you could sit on an old stump in the woods amidst the glittering sunlight and mossy shadows and be a timber wolf. You could look under a bush in your own backyard, where the world seems far away…and you could be a pirate on a desert island. But sometimes that place isn’t easy to find. “Sometimes a person needs a quiet place.”Ī place that’s far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life - a place that isn’t ringing or talking or roaring or blaring or playing.
