Year: 2018
Synopsis: A family — along with what was left of humanity — must live in silence to hide from sound-sensitive creatures of unknown origin.
Pros:
• Brilliantly acted and uniquely implemented story.
• The film would have been just as at home as a true silent-era movie. Fritz Lang could not have done this better, as his deliberate style seen in Nosferatu (1922) was apparent.
• The extensive use of American Sign Language as a means of survival was truly unique.
• Takes familiar horror tropes like monsters and screaming only to silently remake them into something far harder to experience.
• The horror was truly primal within the theme of nearly impossible survival, while enhanced by the frustration of remaining silent.
Cons:
• The primal horror might have been too much for some to watch.
• There were times when one must wonder why the monsters seemed unable to hear heart racing or heavy breathing.
Discussion:
Horror films can sometimes be almost superficial in their implementation. Something lurking to kill us from the shadows is a very primal fear, but overly familiar in the horror genre. Indeed, the killer or monster is often understandable in its motivations in some way. Perhaps that can work more often than not, but the need to survive an impossible situation might be the most horrifying of all. A Quiet Place did not shy away from common themes within horror, including such little details as a very inconvenient nail. At the same time, those common themes are merely used as packaging surrounding things that humanity has worked to overcome for millennia through both intelligence and brute force. We want to survive, but the horror of not knowing how may be debilitating. So, we might look to the next generation to find a way. Yet, the horror might be worse, because they might not survive if the prior cannot figure it all out. Even though a means of survival may have been achieved by the end, there was still great uncertainty.
Rotten Tomatoes — 95%
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