A Quiet Place (2018)

 

Aliens with highly sensitive hearing take over the Earth and kill most of the human population. The Abbott family, living on an isolated farm in the middle of the forest, are among the few survivors. They take special precautions in order to avoid making noise, such as making sand paths through the forest to avoid stepping on crunching leaves.  They also do almost all of their communication through sign language, which they know due to their eldest child being deaf. 

Despite all their precautions, however, the Abbotts' existence is a precarious one.  The aliens are big, strong, fast and tough, and there are still several of them prowling the area.  

The pressure of never making a sound is unrelenting, and the strain of their situation is wearing ever heavier on the family.  Sooner or later, something is going to go wrong ... will any of them survive when it does?

A Quiet Place was a huge critical and financial success, and I can see why.  It's very effectively structured and performed.  

The film establishes its scenario and mood from the offset, with an opening sequence that not only does an effective job of communicating the 'rules' of the aliens without extensive exposition, but also makes it clear that safety is most definitely not guaranteed.

Silence is integral to the film's concept, and it commits to this.  Not only do the characters only communicate verbally in very limited circumstances, but the film itself is very sparing in its use of background music.  The film doesn't completely eliminate its use, but it definitely keeps it very pared back and subtle.  I think this was a smart choice, given the movie's theme.

Key to the film's success of course is the cast, who are uniformly strong.  They all do a good job of (often mutely) convey their emotional connection and distress.  They also do an excellent job of selling the tension of moments where the (largely CGI) monsters are prowling around.

Plot-wise, the film is mostly good.  To give credit where credit is due, the major story element that was bugging me through the first half of the movie was given a decent explanation and answer.  Still, I did think there were a few minor gaps in the logic, and they occasionally dragged me a little out of the experience.  In particular, whatever the movie claims, the aliens aren't blind - they interact with their environment too much for that to be true, grabbing onto banisters, not walking into walls by accident, and so on.  I got distracted wondering how they actually 'saw', on a couple of occasions. 

But overall any complaints I have are frankly minor quibbles.  This is a tense and entertaining film, and - as long as monster movies aren't on your 'no go' list - well worth a watch.