If you know me, you’ll know I hate being scared but love a good horror movie. This weekend John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place hit the box office, and I went to check it out.
The movie, which was written and directed by Krasinski, takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in the near future. The opening title card reads “Day 89” and shows the family (the parents are played by Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt) scavenging a small store for supplies. They all communicate with sign-language, being careful of the sounds that they make. As the family leaves the store, they walk in a single-file line along a path of sand, giving the audience an idea of how serious silence is.
The couple’s youngest son takes a toy rocket from the store, and it begins to make a noise when the family is close to home, to say the least, the opening scene doesn’t end on a high note. The bulk of the movie takes place approximately a year after the initial scene. The family is still living in silence and is trying to decipher what it is that they are keeping silent from.
Krasinski does a fantastic job with all the small details in the film, from the notes in his bunker to the expressions on the characters faces that make up for the lack of sound.
Throughout the movie, there were only a handful of scenes that had sound and verbal dialogue. We live in a world where we heavily rely on audio and visual cues, but this movie goes to show that you can eliminate sound entirely and still have people heavily invested. While sitting in the theatre no one was making a noise, and it was so quiet I could hear the music playing from the washroom next door.
The final scene of the movie was my favourite part. The end shot was one of the best that I’ve seen from a film in a long time. It leaves you wanting more and uses the perfect sound to close out the 90-minutes that you’ve been sitting at the edge of your seat.
In my opinion, Krasinski opened a new world for audiences to explore, and a new genre of horror film and I cannot wait to see what he does next.
