A Quiet Place

If you love horror movies, I suggest that you pay special attention to this one, because there’s a high chance that you’ll never see a piece like this again. A Quiet Place is an exception to my despise. Do you know why? It shouldn’t even be a horror movie. Once I found that out, I was relieved enough to watch the movie, but I didn’t relax. It is not a relaxing movie. The definition of a horror movie is when intense feelings, such as disgust or anticipation, are forced out of audience members in order to induce terror, gruesomeness, or disbelief. That description doesn't really describe A Quiet Place at all.

Not a typical horror movie

The goal of the movie isn’t to cause panic and it doesn't rely on gore nor in searing images. It doesn't want your head to be loud and full of frantic thoughts, trying to scamper for ways to get the characters/yourself out of the unbearable situation. This movie actually wants your head to be quiet and ready to think, in order to “fill in the blanks” and analyze the situation. In other words, most horror movies try to get you to “put yourself in the character's’ shoes” and have you navigate the movie like you’re on the last level of a video game, trying to avoid the traps and beating the boss so that you can get on with your life. In A Quiet Place, no one strays too far off the path, or tries to pet the monster, or hides behind the chainsaws. If a character dies or something unfortunate happens, there’s nothing that could’ve been done. No one made a mistake, so it sucks that it happened. This a “once in a blue moon” horror movie where you’re not supposed to feel what they’re feeling. All you need to know is what’s happening in front of you and if you have any shot of predicting on what’s coming next or how a character is feeling, then you may have to do some critical thinking.

It's a monster movie

So, this is not a movie for the people who throw on a horror movie because they’re bored or for the people who fast forward to the scary parts. The reason this movie is considered horror, is because suspense and the use of a startle can both be key elements in a horror movie and this movie relies on those two respective elements. But remember, this movie is not horrific or even that scary, its goal is entirely different; so I think that this is an okay movie to see for people who don’t/never watch horror films. When the genre of the movie doesn't describe or embody the movie, that’s when you turn to its type. The type of A Quiet Place is of a monster movie. Let me give you the description, “A monster movie, creature feature, or a giant monster film is a disaster film that focuses on a group of characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonist monsters, often abnormally large ones.” I don’t know about you, but I think that description nails the film on the head. So, I feel safe enough to recommend this to the people who like the following in their movies, horror, intellectual horror, suspense, thrillers, monsters, survival, disaster, pop culture, and low-budgets. If you all haven’t already guessed, this is an amazing movie!

Its a new trend of horror

One of the motives I try to accomplish on this blog, is to write reviews on movies that either will start trends or set apart from them. A trend A Quiet Place falls under is the recent release and success of horror movies that are barely even horror movies. I’m talking about the recent monopolization of an audience who aren’t that into the gruesome or horrific movies anymore, but are instead into Stranger Things and other concepts and ideas that are scary once you think about it. Recent examples include, Split, Get Out, It, Mother!, Annihilation, and now A Quiet Place.

The actors brought it home

John Krasinski and Emily Blunt both cemented themselves personally and as a team, in an immeasurable way through this movie. Their chemistry is to be expected, flawless. My only disappointment is that they weren’t in more scenes together. The fact that this is John’s big directing and writing debut is astonishing. What’s even more mind boggling is that Emily’s biggest/most emotional scene in the movie took only one take to film. Their agents’ phones have probably been blowing up as of late. The kids’ performances were exemplary as well. I thought they struck a good balance of being needy at the same time as being independent. The struggles of living in that world were just as evident for them as the parents. One of the children, especially, illustrated a strong message of redemption and of embracing one’s weaknesses.

Visual storytelling at its finest

Imagine a movie about pretty much four people where you don’t learn anyone’s names, you get no backstory or history, and the movie is basically a silent film. Sounds crazy, right? There’s no denying that this is a really ambitious idea. I mean, a modern silent film is in the complete opposite direction of the direction the blockbusters have been heading in. But, this idea is like riding a unicycle over a tightrope. How are you going to have a character driven movie if the characters can’t speak? This film is artistic genius for what it has accomplished. This is visual storytelling at its finest. The plot moves itself, foreshadowing occurs, and messages are exuded all through cinematography. And, the acting is almost completely facial. Mediocrity has no place in a project like this. When it comes to a film’s message, a common trend in cinema is to put in a monologue at the end of the movie, to sum up what the movie means and what its trying to say. That’s not even an option for A Quiet Place but the message is so very clear. The biggest one is about parenthood and what it means to put yourself aside for something you believe in. Others included how compassion itself is a language and a sacrifice. I honestly think that this movie has a very good chance of being nominated for academy awards, particularly for cinematography, its acting, and maybe even set design. I really would recommend this movie to almost anyone. This is the creative side of film that I just can’t get enough of. I’ve even had my eyes widened to the possible impact a light horror can have. Happy watching!