Silent Film

We almost didn’t watch A Quiet Place (2018). Firstly, I’m still kind of nervous about horror. Second, I thought the premise sounded a little shaky. If you make a sound, you get killed, but they’re going to have a baby!?!

It starts in a deserted upstate NY town, with a family silently trudging through. The dad is director John Krasinski, the mom is Emily Blunt (his real-life wife), and they have a daughter and two young sons. As they forage through a grocery store, the youngest son wants to play with a toy space shuttle. Krasinski takes the batteries out and takes it away, saying it is too noisy - in sign language. But the daughter lets him take it and he replaces the batteries. On their way back home, the little boy puts the batteries back and it starts making rocket noise. Instantly, a space monster grabs and kills him. The rest of the family silently creeps away.

The space monsters are blind, but have very acute hearing. As long as you stay perfectly silent, you should be safe. Fortunately for this family, their daughter (deaf actress Millicent Simmonds) is deaf, so they all know sign language. They live in a house in the country, and never sweep or close doors. They lay down paths of sand to walk quietly on. Life goes on and Emily Blunt is expecting.

One odd thing about this horror movie: It’s rather peaceful. Everyone walks around slowly and deliberately like monks in meditation. On the other hand, everyone seems to have plenty of time, even though something like washing the dishes quietly would take an eternity. Everyone has clean clothes, and we see the process of washing clothes. But it’s just a show.

Minor SPOILER - this does get much more tense, but the body count is low (other than most of the world’s population). And there’s a hopeful ending - and a promise of a sequel.

Now how about Bird Box, where you can make all the noise you want, but can’t open your eyes? Worth watching?