Movie Review: A Quiet Place (2018)

Summary: In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing.

Pros:

Cast and Characters.

• Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott. She is the wife of Lee and the mother of three children, later adding a fourth. In the wiki it says she was a doctor, which in ways makes sense. Of course, being the mother, she wants her family to be safe, for her husband to keep her children safe when they go out and about, especially now that she’s pregnant and can’t accompany them. She’s smart as well. She knows how to think on her feet. Emily Blunt is great, as I always think, just that scene in the house when she’s in labor is just so great. Her fear for her family, her fear for her life and her baby, and the guilt she feels for what happened to Beau still haunts her. Emily does all of this so well.

• John Krasinski, as Lee Abbott. An engineer, husband of Evelyn, and the father of Regan, Marcus, and Beau. He is a survivalist who focuses on getting his family through each day. His job is to protect his family and teach his kids how to be survivors as well. He takes Marcus out to learn some things and it’s easy to tell that he wants his son to still enjoy the little things that are awarded to them. He also feels this huge guilt about Beau and it does seem like he’s a little hard on his daughter, but he just feels like he let her down. He’s working on creating a working hearing aid for her and he feels like a failure. It’s interesting really. I’ve never really seen John Krasinski in anything, but he’s great in the role, you really feel and see his fear as well. Plus, he did a great job directing.

• Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott. Lee and Evelyn’s deaf daughter, and Marcus and Beau’s sister. She is close with her young siblings and feels protective over them, but after what happened to Beau, she feels the most guilt about it as she was the one who gave him the rocket. She also feels like her father blames her and they haven’t been on good terms. She’s also a preteen so she’s a bit moody. Mili Simmonds does such a great job, her emotions of feeling like a failure, of being angry, it all makes sense why she feels that way.

• Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott. The oldest son of Lee and Evelyn, and Regan and Beau’s brother. I saw this kid in Wonder and I really liked him then, so once I realized who he was, I got excited lol. His facial expressions are some of the highlights of the film. He does so much with just his expressions. When he’s with his father out and about, for what seems like the first time, he is terrified of what might happened, but he’s also very wise because he understands his sister and his father, and he knows there’s a rift. He wants them to fix it. He also does whatever he can to reach out and protect his family, he even gets in trouble for trying to help. I liked him a lot, I mean I liked everyone, but he was a wise kid. Noah Jupe does a great job in the film.

The Premise. Legit, this movie gives away nothing and you learn nothing about the world their in. The movie is about the family having to survive whatever is going on and not about what happened to the world. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to know what the creatures were and why they were there. What happened before the movie? Sometimes movies like this has little nuggets where they’ll share things, newspaper articles and what not, that kind of give you a hint of what happened but this movie doesn’t do that. It has those things but because the family doesn’t really know much, we as the audience don’t get to know much. The movie isn’t that long but that’s okay because it packs such a punch.

Family Dynamic. The film has hardly any dialogue, so we have to see how this family interacts without that. The very beginning, we see them scavenging a grocery store and we see how they work together. Something happens at the beginning and the family feels a crushing guilt, everyone pretty much, which causes a rift, especially between Regan and Lee which you can see throughout. But there is also a close bond between Marcus and Regan which is sweet. They way the parents love each other and their children, how Lee wants to do anything he can to protect his family, or how Evelyn does whatever she can to protect her unborn and then later newborn baby. They felt like a real family and you want to see them succeed.

Horror Aspects. I don’t normally enjoy horror films, too scared, but I wanted to see this movie since I knew about it. It’s very quiet and as a watcher, make sure you watch the film on a large screen (if you can), make sure it’s dark and silent to get the full ambiance of the film. It’s quiet, it only gets silent whenever the movie “goes into” Regan’s POV since she’s deaf but other than that, you might hear natural sounds, but the characters aren’t making noise, or at least very minimal noise. Due to the silence, it allows for a lot of scares to really get you and while they are jump scares, they’re done in a smart way.

Evelyn, Baby and Monster. Definitely the best scene in the film because it plays up on so much fear, tension and stress. I was stressed out watching it. The scene is set up earlier when she is doing laundry and when she realizes her water broke, she goes to fix their yard lights to Lee and the others would know, and something happen that causes her to drop something with a clatter which causes the monsters to come to the house. So much stress because she has to have her baby and of course the baby might cry, and the thing is in the house. The whole scene with her in the bath tub, ugh. So good. Emily Blunt did the damn thing!

Use of Sound. The movie is smart in how it uses sound. Because the creatures are attracted by sound and attack anything making it, it’s interesting how they even hear just the tiniest sound. The ticking of a timer, the static of a broken TV, all of these things are used in such a smart way. Also, there is a great scene with Regan in the cornfield and the creature that comes through the cornstalks. How they worked that in through the film was so cool!

Creature Design. Ugh those things are ugly. I want to know what they are, but since they’re movie monsters, it’s easy to say “Oh I’ve seen that before” but I can honestly say I have never seen monsters with faces like those. How they could open the flaps on their heads to listen for the tiny sounds, or the fact that they kind of look like extreme mutated humans, but they were kind of cool but also very gross lol. Very original design.

Cons:

Character Stupidity. There are a few instances where I think things could be avoided if characters didn’t make stupid choices. For one thing, we know it’s been 89 days since whatever happened, happened, so all of their kids know by now the severity of what they’re experiencing. Even the youngest boy. But for the newborn, why didn’t the parents think to use condoms or maybe other means of abstinence considering how babies and children are loud? Things will happen that causes them to be loud. It seems like unnecessary stress. What about taking the batteries with them instead of leaving them on the counter? Why not have the little one in the front of the group so he could be seen at all times? What about that nail? It was already sticking up? Why didn’t Lee or even Evelyn notice it before and pull it out? What about Regan being a moody teenager and going off on her own because she’s upset? I know they can’t physically talk but they communicate in sign language and I’m sure she wouldn’t have left if she and Lee actually had a talk BEFORE the events of the film. It makes for wonderful storytelling but still can’t help but to notice.

Overall, I really liked the film. All of the characters are such interesting and well-written characters. The actors do a great job living into his world they unfortunately have to live in and they all have a great family dynamic and chemistry that they feel like a family. All the while a family that has tragedy and it feels a little strained. The premise of the family trying to survive and being a unit is what the film is about, they just happen to be in a post-apocalyptic society. It is a horror film, and I did jump, but it creates a feeling of stress and tension more than fear, personally. The best scene in the film was with Evelyn in the house when she’s in labor, the tension, the stress I felt was so intense, it was so good, and Emily Blunt did a great job. I also think the use of sound in the film is very unique as is the design of the creature. My only problem at the moment is how characters make really dumb choices that could easily be avoided or how there are things that happen that could be controlled but are treated like they couldn’t. Otherwise, this is a great film!

Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars.