Film Review: ‘A Quiet Place’ Will Make You Wish You Had a Quiet Place to Hide

CHICAGO – Terror and fear take several forms. Sometimes it’s something as simple as spiders or snakes or even an incompetent president. Other times it can take the form of natural states, like darkness. Horror films channel our fears, but the great ones give us something new to fear. “A Quiet Place” lures us in with the safety of silence, only to reveal the monsters hiding within.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

The silence is cripplingly contagious, filling the theater with the same blaring quietude the protagonists are forced to live in. The auditory softness of the film is meant to lull us into a sense of security, but like Charlie Brown and the football, we are never really given the chance. As soon as our guard is down, the film is quick to remind us that we should be in muscle-tensed attention at all time. “A Quiet Place” takes full advantage of its conceit, juxtaposing moments of vacuous silence with sudden bursts of piercing punctuations. The film uses American Sign Language (ASL) for the majority of the dialogue very organically, creating this world where it is a necessary survival tool. At no point does the use of ASL feel like it is being used as a gimmick, but rather a fresh approach director/co-writer/actor John Krasinski seamlessly incorporates into the story in a respectful and substantial way.

Krasinski may be new to directing, but he displays a fundamental understanding of one of the toughest genres to master: horror. I’m not talking about cheap, predictable horror films, which are easy to master. The true measure of a good horror film is how much it engages with the audience and vice versa. Krasinski manipulates sound and silence to create his jump scares. The jump scares may seem cheap, but they are used skillfully and very effectively. Krasinski channels popular horror films like “Alien” to create a tense, uneasy environment where the audience feels like their survival is tied to the characters.

“A Quiet Place” opens everywhere on April 6th. Featuring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Leon Russom and Cade Woodward. Directed by John Krasinski. Written by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and John Krasinski. Rated “PG-13”