A Quiet Place

Silent Running

Those suffering from a nervous disposition, weak hearts or stress related illnesses should probably steer well clear of 2018’s survival horror pick A Quiet Place. Despite the fact that we’ve seen it all before, director John Krasinski, best known from the American version ofThe Office, has managed to produce an experience full of potent dread and unease. Not many films since Ridley Scott’s Alien have so effectively and readily set about to manipulate cortisol production.

And this is mostly down to a rather simple yet ingenious premise: in the post-apocalyptic world presented to us, sound is the ultimate enemy.

From the opening scenes – where we are introduced to a family scavenging for supplies in abandoned buildings and clearly agitated with regards to raising the decibels above the softest of whispers – it becomes quickly apparent that any noise produced independently over the general ambiance of the immediate environment, causes death to descend in the form of scythe-armed mutants.

It’s a contrived, silly idea. But one that mercilessly grips the viewer’s fight or flight instincts and survival mechanisms. One of the attractions of watching any good horror movie is the morbid thrill of allowing the sensory abuse of the medulla oblongata. In this, A Quiet Placesucceeds, making us physically invested in ways films of other genres cannot.

Mere manipulation of the basic senses would pull the film into b-movie/exploitation flick territory, but Krasinski side-steps falling into this trap by his empathetic portrayal of an everyday family, which rests at the centre of the story. Real life couple Emily Blunt and Krasinski (who also stars) give a relatable enough performance of a mother and father attempting to make a life for themselves and their children amid the shadow of death looming around every sneeze.

With gender stereotypes intact, Blunt teaches her children to read, write and do maths, while Krasinski takes the role of mentor in more practical matters like hunting. The fact that one of their children is deaf does add an extra layer to the familial struggle. Though in truth this addition, masquerading as laden with meaning, is merely a device to play with in the moments of horror and something that disappointingly becomes a mcguffin towards the end.

The child actors are relative newcomers Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe and both demonstrate their ability; their characters a mixture of helplessness and burgeoning strength. The utter dependency on the adults in their lives and the hardships they face tilt them towards feeling resentment for their protectors. Indeed the child characters are more interesting at times than the adults, who seem to be more pre-occupied with creating a romantic idyll, rather than adapting, without delusion, to their situation.

The OCD among the audience will definitely find it grating that, in a world where staying alive depends on ‘shushing’ in a way the most tyrannical of librarians would be proud of, these people 1) keep so many things, trinkets and items in places that can be knocked over, and 2) aren’t slightly more perfectionist when it comes to the carpentry of staircases..

As such there are weak points. Not least when the film’s own rules regarding what sort of sound that attracts the mutants are confusingly cast aside at times. Also, A Quiet Placenever really achieves as humanistic, deep or despairing a take on the end of life as we know it as it sometimes wants. But then again we have The Road for that.

What it does is provide a memorable, anxiety induced trip, and one that begs to be seen at the cinema; the film’s clever use of the integral mechanic of sound – or even the absence of it – being felt so much more in front of the big screen.

The message of Krasinski’s offering may well be that we should appreciate how much we take sound for granted. If nothing else, A Quiet Place is unique in that, while most horror movies make you scream during the proceedings, here you will want to scream when you leave your seat. Simply because you can.