I am sure when Jim from The Office started shopping around the idea of Signs, but everyone has to be quiet, there were not a lot of takers. However, after a massive opening weekend Paramount must be glad they took a chance. While the movie is far from original, though honestly what horror movie is at this point, A Quiet Place makes up for it with its spot on execution and amazing performances.
The quick setup for A Quiet Place is that in the near future the world is overrun by blind monsters with amazing hearing, and they kill anything that they can hear. A family has learned to survive in this silent world, thanks in part to their hearing impaired daughter, giving them the ability use sign language to communicate.
As I said earlier, we have seen a lot of this before. Obviously Signs used the hook of a family up against aliens, and just last year Don’t Breathe had everyone trying to stay quiet unless they wanted to get viciously murdered, but John Krasinski keeps everything so tight, tense and focused that the familiarity is not an issue. Not to mention the family’s struggle to survive is so convincing that you can’t help but get swept away with what is happening on screen.
Obviously Krasinski’s directing wasn’t the only reason this family’s tale was so convincing, the actors get a lot of credit for that too. A lot of times it is hard for real life couples to portray their real life chemistry on screen, but that did not seem to be an issue for Krasinski and Emily Blunt. They don’t get all the credit though, their kids, played by Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe, also do a fantastic job. Kids are always great for horror movies because with adults it ticks us off when they do something stupid, but kids, we believe that they will make bad decisions.
As you can tell, I really enjoyed A Quiet Place. It is refreshing to see horror movies that are made with actual talent, and a will by their creators to make something good. Instead of the usual dreck that gets made. Even better, it might be the most family friendly horror movie made in quite some time, so if you have older kids, it is a movie you and the kids can get scared at together. While not as good as last year’s Get Out, A Quiet Place is a fantastic way to start off the summer movie season.