A QUIET PLACE (2018)

4/9/18 - A Quiet Place - 6+/10

Extremely effective in its narrow focus - to instill and thrill with minimalism, auditorily and plot-wise. This is a good solid tightrope of fear & excitement, where each musical queue or creature sound shreds through you. It hits you and heightens the experience, never relying on standard jump scares, but it also never truly outperforms or step out on any ledge. I didn’t see the extreme specialness. It is a novel experience and works well; a basic idea executed with aplomb.

Obviously the sound design is attentive and superb. It had to be to work properly. That said, the judicious use of music, dialogue, and sometimes any/no sound at all, really heaved a weight of expectation and power upon each noise. It was both clever and shrewd, providing a unique experience that paved the way for A Quiet Place’s unheralded interest and bombastic success.

Where it excels in style, it lacks in depth. It is simplistic and feeds the audience every plot point and emotional pulse. It struggles for growth and development beyond pre-apportioned beats and functions on some questionable logic...No animals? The parents can do everything? The behavior and luck with the pregnancy/child? Of course they are set up to live in a voiceless world with their deaf daughter and their sign language... It all works out pretty conveniently. The story necessitates much of it and, despite intermittent nagging, avoids derailing the enthrallment. But that believability blanket is certainly at least frayed at the edges.

I must say that; if you want to eat food, be sick, or whisper in this movie: DON’T! GO TO A DIFFERENT MOVIE. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. It is chillingly quiet and every crunch, cough, or conversation is noticeable. Eat before you come. Take your meds. Shut the bleep up (although you should already be doing that...you monsters!). Keep the experience pure and taught. It will be better for everyone.

It is tense and harrowing in the moment. Quality horror/thriller in that regard. But it isn’t extraordinary in its penetration or in providing a real dialogue with any cultural/social/cinematic issue, something recent great horror and sci-fi have strove for. This small tale of familial protection doesn’t have the nuance or relative power of an Annihilation, It Only Comes At Night, It Follows, Get Out, or the Babadook, to name just a few. There is something larger and more thoughtful being depicted and strained through the horror sifter with those films, which lets them linger and metastasize in the memory. This is a quick pulse-pounding tension filled thriller, that heightens your senses and wraps your attention. Then it ends, without much to think on or wrestle with. It’s a catchy pop tune, not an artistic ballad for the ages.

Makes for an enjoyable and decently gripping watch. I may have wanted a bit more lifeblood wrung from that fertile and available horror wound.... but it accomplished its desired goal. A good time in the theater and a nice watch.