It’s only a few hours till the Oscars, so guest reviewer reelrealities returns with a look at 2018’s surprise hit “A Quiet Place.”
Horror can be a tricky genre to master. We get scores of horror movies each year but remember only a handful by the end. So it’s refreshing when filmmakers give new twists to the story and keep us engaged and tied to our seats without jump scares or gore but pure inventive storytelling. A Quiet Place certainly does that and it’s one of the best in its genre recently.
John Krasinski and Emily Blunt play a couple who, along with their children, try to survive in a near future where the world is inhabited by creatures with an amplified sense of sound. Their only weakness is that they are blind. These creatures have already wrecked havoc by the time the film starts and we are thrown right in the middle from the get go, which is a smart move as we don’t get time to slowly settle into the world.
The tension is palpable from the beginning where something tragic happens which really affects the family and their actions for the rest of the movie. The film is mostly silent for the majority of its runtime and the first half is paced a bit slow, but that doesn’t take away its edge for a moment.
We are invested in the family and care about them, which is rare in horror movies where characters are easily dispensable. All the characters give a stellar performance with Emily Blunt standing out. She has minimal dialogue, but her facial expressions speak for her. Millicent Simmonds as the daughter, who is deaf in real life, gives an awesome performance too.
It can be argued that the end is a bit hurried without full closure, but this is not the last we have seen of this world as a prequel/sequel has been announced.
Overall, don’t miss this if you appreciate intelligent inventive horror movies and i am sure you wont be disappointed. In Get Out last year and A Quiet Place this year, horror seems to be in good hands again.
Reelrealities is an avid cinephile and posts (mostly) spoiler-free reviews and recommendations, find more on instagram and blogspot.