Alternatives is the tagline to discuss entertainment outside of literature. It may encompass television, movies, games, and music.

Alternatives
Movie Review –
A Quiet Place (2018)

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama 
Duration: 95 Minutes
Directed By: John Krasinski
Starring: John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe

A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7cc5t7tv8

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Reaction

I. Love. This. Film.

And part of that is because I’m so on board with “horror” films that don’t solely rely on jump scares or gore or monsters for the sake of excitement but rather stimulate and support the experience of the story and message by immersing horror with it. Bonus points if the film makes me weep and feel all the emotions like A Quiet Place did.

Things you don’t expect going into a horror film, I guess.

Directed and starring John Krasinski himself, A Quiet Place centers on a family living in the fringes of a post-apocalyptic world where silence equates to survival. The film opens up on Day 89 and immediately delves into their day-to-day without explanation. This is the type of film that may generate a lot more questions than it eventually answers, and I guess you have to be okay with that. I sure was. At it’s core, it’s about a family who need to navigate a world they don’t completely understand but still making the best of it. There’s so much heart in this film, that the emotions are incredibly palpable.

Do I have grievances with some avenues of storytelling? Absolutely. Like many horror films, there’s a sense of terrible decision making we get from our leads that make us think their, simply put, dumb. In A Quiet Place, many of the choices are all valid, if not always the smartest. They’re just trying their best. And I guess I’m okay with that (with the exception of a few).

When the setting itself is a character and that translates off the screen and into the audience? You’ve won. And that’s my wow-moment of this viewing experience. Definitely a re-watch to follow.

Last thought: there’s minimal dialogue in this film and therefore subtitles are present when they sign to talk.

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Casting

Krasinski and Blunt are hella adorable in real life, okay? So for them to play family on screen was rather otherworldly. Every character seemed to have a standout moment, and I was so rooting for them throughout, but Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress whom I have never seen on film before, was stellar. Great kid actors are great. That’s all I got.

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Afterthoughts

Have you seen A Quiet Place? Will you see it?

Cheers,
Joey

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