Credits: Screen Rant
The quiet place is an exceptional take on horror movies and comes as a breath of fresh air where most slashers and horror flicks had become almost predictable with their overused jump scares and poltergeist plotlines. It did well at the box office, but the best part was its fresh direction and an array of cast members that vowed with their chilling characters. The film soon earned great critical acclaim and is certainly the best horror movie in over a decade, if not in the whole 21st century, but that's yet to be decided. Now that A Quiet Place II is making rounds at the theatres, no one can help but wonder if it will achieve the same nerve-chilling sensation that the first movie was. And to be a great judge of the A Quiet Place sequel, it is time for a look back on all the elements that made A Quiet Place the fantastic movie in the first place.
The film is directed by John Krasinski, a first-time horror director, but you can't tell from his great work, right? He stars in the lead role in the film along with his wife, Emily Blunt. The two are in the lead of the Abbot family and take you on a harsh ride as you see everything that the world thrives on turn into nothing and emerge totally new but with no sound at all. The dystopian world comes by when a host of blind extraterrestrial monsters find their way to earth and use their highly sensitive hearing for hunting their prey. A significant chunk of the population succumbs to the attack in the first few days, while others totally have to give up on loud sounds and resort to minimal whispers and sign language communication.
Read further to know what's great in the movie:-
1. Novelty of plotline
Credits: IMDB
Horror is certainly not a boring genre in the least bit overdone cliche scares, and worn-out plotlines tend to become unengaging over time and fail to grip the viewers. But A Quiet Place found a whole another world to the likings of the writers and created something very unique, original, and genius. The dystopian world trope provides ample space for ideas to run amok and build a world of horror that is undoubtedly relentless when it comes to delivering tense, on the edge moments to the film. Krasinski, Bryan Woods, and Scott Beck did well with the opportunity they had created a story unlike any before. With a concept that was never seen in the thriller world, the idea of a soundless world truly opened up a new door for other genius filmmakers.
2. Great acting
Emily Blunt was the MVP of A Quiet Place.
The film did well on the shoulders of four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and two-time Screen Actors Guild Awards winner John Krasinski. However, the best performance came from the side of Emily Blunt, who indeed became a living, breathing person of the dystopian world and inhabited the role with utter conviction. She carried her character and the film's plot to extraordinary heights as she displayed her final stand of courage during the end moments of the film.
The actress truly showed a convincing take of what a woman actually stuck in such a world would look like without any of her acts slipping up. A lot of appreciation is also due for Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe. The child actors did justice to their innocent roles, and it was difficult to feel anything but pity for the two kiddos who couldn't enjoy an everyday world of laughter and giggles in the horror universe of A Quiet Place.
Credits: Indiewire
3. Astonishing direction from the man behind the camera
John Krasinski is a great actor, and many can stand vouch for that, but seeing him as a person with a vision behind the camera truly came off phenomenal. Notably, Krasinski directed a horror film for the first time when he donned the cap of a filmmaker, and yet no one could say that the work is of a novice. He breathed life into the story with a steady pace that you could almost say was lifelike. The experiences of the on-screen characters and their actions during the film duration carried at a rate that someone would ensure in real-life situations when subject to such thrill. The direction went by with proper time to process the happenings and yet did not let the throbbing anxiety of what would happen become boring or under-paced. Krasinski definitely knew what he was doing with the movie!
4. Empathetic characters and themes
A Quiet Place might be a film about a dystopian world, but its characters and themes indeed had so much to relate to lives of our own. With grief and guilt drenching the thoughts of the characters, it was difficult not to visualize ourselves at the places portrayed by the talented actors. The couple, Evelyn and Lee, have so much to digest and carry on with even in a world that is unfathomable in the wildest nightmares of a person. They have lost their youngest child to the monster attacks a year before the timeline of the film, the grief of which hangs over the both of them. And, yet they carry on with the idea of a phantom family that no longer exists. The understandable dynamics of the characters' thoughts, their grief, the need for near ones, and family idealism is something so many of us can relate to even out of a dystopian world.
Credits: New Yorker
5. Never heard before the approach to sound
What makes the viewers the tensest and scared in horror films? The goosebump-inducing sound effects foretell the presence of a sinister being, a serial killer, or an adverse happening as the film builds towards its crescendo. Every nerve-wracking moment is conceded with chilling sounds, crashes, windows, and doors rattling to suggest a poltergeist.
But, A Quiet Place didn't have the liberty to use loud noises to depict the horror of impending doom. Hence, it made do with what sounds they could to add an element of the hearing sense into the movie. The unique sound design approach relied on the softest human sounds as the minimal dialogue was featured in the movie. Instead of loud sounds building a feeling of fearful apprehension, the movie used natural and ambient sounds to bridge the gap. The sound design hence totally went with the plotline and sure helped intensify the tense moments.
