Review: A Quiet Place

Set in a post-apocalyptic existence, John Krasinski tries to keep his family (pregnant wife Emily Blunt and their three kids) alive under threat from monsters with super sensitive hearing.

Massively ripping other films off left and right, this 2018 suspense picture from director, co-writer, and star John Krasinski (whose “The Hollars” was a bit average) isn’t bad but isn’t good, either. It never quite becomes anything more than “Jump Scare: The Movie”, due to its filmmaking style/approach. You wish it was a lot better than it is, or at least more ambitious in approach and original in story. The influences here are pretty damn obvious- “Signs”, “The Road”, and Spielberg’s underrated “War of the Worlds”. The film never finds its own identity.

Although the film is good-looking and well-acted, the familiarity and its overall William Castle-esque gimmicky-ness with all the ‘jump’ scares prevent it from leaving a lasting impression. That’s a shame, because there is good on display here. Five minutes in and the cast here definitely sell you on these characters, they’re a likeable bunch and I will never fail to be appreciative of that in a horror film. It’s pretty much essential in my view if you’re going to sell me on the situation to have characters one wants to spend 90 or so minutes with. It’s also not quite as simple as you might think to have your characters ingratiate themselves with the audience here. 8 minutes in and not a word of dialogue has been spoken, yet I was very worried that bad things were going to happen to these people and I very much didn’t want bad things to happen to these people. Krasinski in particular gives a terrific performance using mostly just his face and body, with very little dialogue to use. I also liked that the kids act like kids and occasionally they do stupid stuff that fucks things up for everyone. That’s something I’d believe real kids would unwittingly do, kind of like how the little girl in Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” couldn’t help but get scared and start screaming. ‘Coz she’s a little girl. And aliens are blowing shit up. I’m an adult and I might scream and cry at that shit, too.

However, the overall cheap approach on display here undercuts every good thing here to some extent, I’m afraid. Or at least it prevents the film from being better than it is. I’m sorry, but ‘jump’ scares are cheap and not ‘scary’. They ‘startle’ momentarily, but for something to truly frighten, it needs to linger, it needs to be more than a moment. Nothing director Krasinski does with the device changes my mind on that, and it’s a shame because there was probably a more effective way to tell this story, familiar as it may be. Let’s be honest, the fact that one of the characters here is deaf…is just a cheap tactic to allow for periods of silence followed by the big ‘BOO!’ jump scare moments. Yes, it’s an interesting idea to have the audience jump at loud sounds that the deaf person can’t actually hear (and the young actress in question is deaf in real-life herself and terrific in the role), but it’s a cheap cleverness. I did think it was brilliant that when they play Monopoly, they’ve replaced the plastic pieces with soft objects that don’t make a sound. In what is a pretty crazy situation, that’s actually quite a believable thing a family might do if one were to accept this situation as real for 90 minutes. However, that scene is followed by something worse than a jump scare…the false jump scare. In this case it’s a ‘Oh, it’s just raccoons on the roof’. Ugh. So cheap. So lazy. And not at all scary. In fact, the most terrifying thing in the entire film is the screen title ‘Day 473’. This situation has been going on for more than a year! I’ve roasted the screenplay for being unoriginal in plot, but Krasinski and co-writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck (a writer-director team on their first big project here) do get a clever or interesting moment in from time to time. The way in which we get to our first real spoken bit of dialogue I think is quite cleverly done. However, having Blunt (in a believably terrified performance) left alone at just the moment where she needs Krasinski the most is awfully convenient and clichéd. So, points off for that late-in-the-game moment.

It’s the ‘jump’ scare approach that is the real problem here, though. A lack of originality is more excusable to some extent given there’s supposedly only a certain number of plots available if you believe the old saying. The ‘jump’ scares basically turn what is a potentially very tense, human horror-drama into a cinematic ghost train ride. When we do get a look at what is menacing everyone, I did appreciate their ugly aesthetic and giant ears. That’s clever and amusing. However, the longer the film goes on, the less effective it is because a) That’s where most of the ‘jump’ scares are, b) The “Signs” comparisons become almost plagiaristic, and c) The central menace proves ultimately to not be all that threatening. Either that or they’re weirdly selective in how often they attack/kill. Man, that’s a real shame.

This is so good looking and it’s really well-acted, but ultimately a few big problems see it come up short. I think as a filmmaker Krasinski might have some talent for genre work, he just needs to stop relying on the cheap horror tactics. Krasinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt are perfect in the lead roles, and the children are fine too. However, the mixture of over-familiarity and cheap ‘scare’ tactics result in a film that ultimately underwhelms.

Rating: C+