The best of 2018: A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place (2018, Directed by John Krasinski and starring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe)

A review by Chris Lee

A Quiet Place (2018, Directed by John Krasinski) is the kind of film that comes along, like the antagonist during the run-time of most creature features, every once in a while to thrill, scare, and zap our imaginations with fright. The second film from John Krasinski, also acting alongside his wife, Emily Blunt is a horror classic I can recommend to anyone, even if you aren’t a fan of the genre.

Krasinski tackles the proceedings with the kind of steady, knowing hand you would expect from auteurs 5-10 years into their game. It’s impressive.

The premise revolves around the global appearance of an otherworldly threat that tracks its prey via sound, and how survivors of this invasive threat survive in a world where making noise is fatal. Apparently the things stalking the film’s characters can hear the heartbeat of a mouse from a mile away, which makes for some stellar scenes of nail-biting tension, but does raise some logical issues that you’ll have to, and likely be more than happy to, overlook.

Krasinski and Blunt are tasked with carrying the entirety of the film, as the only two veteran actors, on their backs. Krasinksi brings an unexpected fatherly stoicism and warm masculinity appropriate for the part. Blunt is given an okay amount to do, and spends all of it proving why she’s the most versatile actress working today. The actors playing their children, Simmonds and Jupe, do fine work here and mostly don’t fall into the tired trope of annoying kids. They’re capable, listen to their parents (aside from expected young insolence), and even get some impressive action beats themselves to keep the tension rolling and hold it aloft admirably.

Krasinski leads the audience along an astoundingly quiet piece of cinema that makes its few sounds just as much stars as its actors. A particularly intense sequence towards the film’s climax has you nearly reaching for your ears in hopes that, like the monsters, the noise you’ve been quickly and expertly conditioned to fear goes away quickly.

Beautiful cinematography, steady pacing, magnetic performances, and some impressive, sparingly used special effects come together to create an excellent creature feature that will leave all but the most jaded audience members inching toward the edge of their seats. 

Here’s looking forward to more from John Krasinski, if this is what he can give us right out of the gate.

4/5