Day 187 - A Quiet Place

Day 187          A Quiet Place [2018]

                          

Screenplay                    Bryan Woods, Scott Beck & John Krasinski

Director                         John Krasinski

Cinematography             Charlotte Bruus Christensen

Music                            Marco Beltrami

Leads                            John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe

Production                     Platinum Dunes

IMDb                                 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes                 95%

This film reminded me of something an old cricket coach used to say to me: satisfaction is in the effort, not in the attainment. I think he stole it from Mahatma Gandhi, who I’m sure didn’t intend it to be used to encourage a 12-year-old C team bowler to keep playing cricket. Or indeed for it to be used to describe a horror film made by Jim from The Office (US). I’ll get to the point. This film was so nearly perfect, but I have a few qualms with it. The film follows a family who live in rural America. The country has been overrun by aliens that are hyper sensitive to sound and we infer that they have wiped out much of the human race. The family start off the film with mother and father – real-life couple Blunt and Krasinski, two young sons and a daughter who is deaf. Millicent Simmonds plays the daughter who is deaf in real life which I think was an inspired casting choice. It’s important that Hollywood casts those who don’t have to pretend to be something they are not. For example, the recent backlash from the trans community over Scarlett Johansson playing a trans character. I’ve gone off on a tangent. The family survive a nervous life where sound is the enemy, whilst the father tries to contact the outside world and figure out the aliens’ weakness. The premise of aliens that react to sound was original and created wonderful suspense as well as plenty of jumpy moments. Don’t watch this film with headphones – I learnt that the hard way watching it on a plane. Rather than rant I will just pose a few questions I had of the film and, believe me, there are more where these came from [spoilers ahead]. How have the entire human race not figured out how to defeat these aliens? If they worked out they are sensitive to sound you would have thought someone would fiddle with some frequencies? Blunt’s character shoots one in the head and it dies – surely the military fought them in this way? (to be fair they may be fighting them elsewhere but we don't know it). Isn’t it irresponsible of them to have a child – we saw what happened to their last young child? Why wouldn’t they just live in the soundproof room they made, or at least live by the river/waterfall which masks sound? I have so many more questions, but you understand my frustration. I feel they should have asked themselves these questions and written the script differently. In good horror films, people act in a rational way and you still get scared. There were a couple of other scenes where I wondered what the fuck was going on. Like the scene where there is suddenly a room full of water and a creature is down in the room with Blunt, or the fact Simmonds runs off and no-one seems to care. However, for all its foibles I can’t deny I enjoyed the movie. The monsters were amazing – even if they were copies of the Stranger Things monster – and the idea was new. It’s just a shame they didn’t quite pull it off.

Acting                              3 / 4

Writing                             2 / 4

Cinematography            3.5 / 4

Music                               2 / 4

HWF rating               2.5 / 4