A Quiet Place (2018) - Review
John Krasinski is best known as Jim in the US version of The Office. He's had a few film roles, but hadn't had a real break through. Then came the 2018 horror film, A Quiet Place. Krasinski, wrote, directed and stars with Emily Blunt, who he is married to, in the film and in reality. I'm going to forgive myself for not giving Krasinski the credit he deserves before seeing A Quiet Place. Though I've found The Office funny when I've seen it, for some reason, it just never caught my interest the way it did so many others, and nothing else Krasinski has done suggested he'd be able to take full creative control of a feature film, much less craft it into one of the best horror films of the 21st century, so far. Unfortunately, when it was in theaters, I wasn't able to catch it, as life was a bit beyond hectic, so thankfully, it's now streaming on Amazon Prime.
This is a well thought out script. The efficiency of the storytelling is commendable. The lack of extraneous scenes or information helps to provide a propulsive pace which serves to layer suspense and tension. The level of tension in the film is taxing. Harrowing is a good description for the experience of watching it for the first time. Even as audiences are going to realize they're seeing pieces set up in the plot, the film manages to create pay offs which are full of punch, by layering them in suspense and jaw clenching tension.
Krasinski and company should also be recognized for grounding the tension and horror in the relationships between the characters. The film isn't obsessed with the villains, creatures who use sound to hunt. It is focused completely on the Krasinski's character, Blunt's character, their children, and their relationships to each other. They all feel like full characters, not throw aways or sacrifices waiting to be made to satiate the expectations of the audience. Those relationships have consequences and benefits as the film progresses. All of the performances are outstanding. Emily Blunt is always a credit to whatever film she's in, and it's no different here. Krasinski goes far beyond what we've seen from him before, also giving an excellent performance.
One piece of writing in particular, the set up for and execution of the last ten minutes of the movie, should be recognized by itself. Better not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, other than to say, I thought that taken as a whole, it is one of the most satisfying endings to a horror film in recent history.
The last two decades have produced a good number of excellent horror films. A new generation of film makers has been mining the horror genre, and those adjacent to it, and the majority of these great horror films have in some way been an amalgam of different genres. A Quiet Place is a horror film, through and through. Genre bending is great, and has definitely benefited genre film overall, and somehow, A Quiet Place manages to be a fresh take on a genre as old as film is, by being so unconcerned with being anything other than a horror film. Part of that is due to it's not trying to flaunt its fresh pieces as the only reason for the film to exist. It's clear the goal of the film is to make audiences care about this family, first, and second, to make the audience squirm, squeal, sigh and involuntarily yell as the family is subjected to increasing levels of danger in different situations. That's it.
A Quiet Place isn't interested in being regarded as something new, different and worthy of marveling at because of it's tricks, which has been a feature of many of the best new horror films. The only ambition A Quiet Place has is to give a the most tense, harrowing, anxiety inducing cinematic experience it can, and in doing so, it's incredibly engrossing. Alongside Alien, The Thing, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, it provides an example of building a world class creature feature.
Along with Hereditary , The Witch and Get Out it is one of more recent films which deserve to be considered in the canon every film fanatic (especially those with a specific affinity for horror) should see. It is tense, intense and it pushes a number of emotional buttons. All of this being true, it isn't graphically bloody, the violence happens off screen and is suggested not shown, so it doesn't need much in the way of content warnings. Don't let the lack of blood and guts or graphic onscreen violence fool you though, the level of intensity is going to be too much for small children, and should be communicated to any adults who are negatively effected by such films.
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