A Priceless Review: “A Quiet Place”

Image+from+aquietplacemovie.com

Image from aquietplacemovie.com

Every creak of a wooden floor, every flick of a light switch, every sudden noise that is produced results in casualty. It’s important to keep quiet and stay hidden. Otherwise, the juice that powers “A Quiet Place” becomes insignificant and unrewarding.

“A Quiet Place” is a horror, thriller directed by famed “The Office” actor, John Krasinski. Set in the future, a family has to live in total silence. They speak in sign language, they pour sand on the floor to eliminate walking sounds and they soundproof every object possible. This is the living situation due to horrific, otherworldly creatures in the area that hunt using an extreme heightened sense of hearing.

What’s clear in this movie is that Krasinski was inspired by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. This horror film is not entirely scary; it’s more suspenseful. It’s an emotional roller coaster that keeps the audience at the edge of their seats, but it unfortunately shows all-too-common qualities of a cliché horror flick.

The film is guilty of using the typical jump scares that lives inside of every small, indie horror film. This is the jump scare that originates off the camera and is followed by an intense increase in the score. Horror films back in the day, relied on this to scare the audience for entertainment, but it’s become overused. Audiences are looking for more sophistication in horror films which is very evident in films like 2017’s “Get Out” and “It.”

However, the suspense that the movie builds is masterfully created. A scene in the film involves the birth of a baby, but in order for the mother, the child and the family too be safe they have to distract the creatures from hearing the birth. Every little buildup that took place up to the terrifying kicker was brilliant. Obviously, the film had me clenching my teeth, but I didn’t go to sleep having horrible nightmares.

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The biggest glaring problem with the film was the characters and their development. Some of the characters, mainly the daughter, made idiotic choices that didn’t serve the movie any justice. It made the film seem very unintelligent and unrealistic. Films are fictional, but there’s a difference between writing character decisions that are supposed to make the movie more terrifying and giving characters an actual vital reason for doing something. This created an appalling amount of plot holes in the story.

The one bright side to the unfortunate characterization was the pleasant surprise of the casting of the daughter. In the movie, the daughter is deaf, and so is the actress in real life. This is a big win for the deaf/hard-of-hearing community. It’s delightful to see Hollywood casting actors/actresses in roles that fit the role authentically. Not only is it more appealing to the audience, it grounds the performance in real-life; giving a legitimate performance of a role that is part of a community.

By no means is this a dreadful film. It’s a lot more solid and well put together than it seems to be. Although, with the problems the film possesses, it’s a little hard to not make noise in such a quiet place.