Film Review: A Quiet Place – 8/10

‘Who are we if we can’t protect them? We have to protect them…’

Normally, the introduction for an article about a brilliant horror film in 2018 would begin with a lengthy diatribe about Blumhouse Productions and how influential it is. For once, I am happy to say that the production company behind Hush, Get Out and Creep are not involved here at all, and boy must they be kicking themselves. A Quiet Place is as good as anything in the Blumhouse roster…

A terrifying unnamed creature stalks what is left of the human race. Totally blind but with incredible hearing, the monsters can be avoided only through complete silence. The Abbotts are a resourceful family led by real life husband and wife duo John Krasinski and Emily Blunt’ Krasinski also directs.

The concept of film that is almost entirely without sound must have been a hard sell but so many modern horror films rely on a single hook and still become hugely successful. The key is in the execution of course. The fact that the Abbott family contains three children is what makes the tension so unbearable that you can feel it whispering nefarious evils in your ear. As a teacher I can attest to the fact that you can’t keep children silent for more than thirty seconds before one of them farts or falls off their chair. This universal truth allows A Quiet Place to foster a feeling of brooding inevitability without ever becoming predictable or forced.

Krasinski and Blunt make for a believable couple (it would be weird if they didn’t) and all the child actors do a good job too, particularly Millicent Simmonds who draws from her real life deafness to produce a performance that is heart-stoppingly resonant. For Krasinski,  A Quiet Place affords the opportunity to break free of his usual roles as well as a chance to display his film making chops, something that he does with craft and skill.

A Quiet Place manages to combine a number of disparate influences; Hush, Dead Silence, Bird Box, Cloverfield etc, to produce something that actually surpasses all of them. Simply put, the best horror film since Get Out.