When I first heard about this movie, it was from a student of mine. He went, “There is this movie I wanna see with my wife, and I heard it’s amazing.”
I remembered then, that John Krasinski posted something about A Quiet Place, and how he and Emily worked together in that project. And considering how much I adore those two, I thought, why not.
Until I saw the trailer and decided to not go for it.
However, a few days ago, one of my students went, “My 13 year old brother wants to see it, and he isn’t a bit scared. Why are you?”
Given that, I immediately set my mind into watching it last weekend.
Now, this movie turned out to be an interesting treat. That when I thought it was more about the thriller and actions, it ended up being a lot more about a family. Parenting, more like it.
It started with a world where sounds could get people killed. Because the world was dominated by aliens that hunted loud, out of the blue sounds. They were blind, thankfully, but one sound and everyone would be dead.
A family of five, the Abbots, led by the father Lee and mother Evelyn, three beautiful children: Regan who was deaf, Marcus, and little Beau were getting supplies from an abandoned store. Beau found a toy, which had a ringtone to it, and he wanted to keep it. Of course, everyone was concerned because any sound could get them killed.
However, Beau decided to keep it and turn it on on the way back home, getting himself killed in front of the whole family.
A year later, the family still survived. Evelyn was carrying a child, and they were counting down to the day the baby was born, because with a baby, it would be a lot harder to stay alive.
The children started to struggle, because they weren’t able to do things freely, and Regan was frustrated with her hearing aid, which didn’t work.
And one day, when the family went separate ways, Evelyn was alone at home and her water broke.
Things got really ugly from that point on.
I questioned my existence the whole time the movie was on, and not in the best way to be exact. My weakness is children, and watching the children have to fight so hard to stay alive and to protect each other was painful.
And when the baby arrived, my heart just stopped beating altogether.
There’s something truly beautiful in the way this movie was directed, that it targeted not our fear towards the unknown, but something so banal.
For instance, the most cringeworthy scene for me was this one time that Evelyn accidentally pulled a nail out on an old staircase. And hours later when her water broke, she thought of rushing herself down to safety, and the audience knew what was going to happen. I remember I held onto my popcorn and just prayed she wouldn’t, although of course she ended up stepping right onto it.
It was just silly, and at the same time, nerve wrecking. I had so many questions for the characters, and I couldn’t even think of why they even bothered to place themselves in such situations.
But it was well acted and well directed. It definitely gave me the chills over some menial things I never thought could ever be used against me.
And this movie certainly delivered, in the many ways I didn’t expect it to.
An 8/10. I know it’s surprising but I would actually recommend it to people. Because it’s different from what we have been watching in theaters, and it’s definitely an interesting experience.
OpinionHuis 