A Quite Place (2018)

Forgive me, Dear Reader, it has been six months since my last blog post... A couple of friends wanted me to review this so here I am. Peer pressure has made me dust the cobwebs away from this blog of mine. It's been so long I even forgot my password - which I guess is a good thing.

I have an issue with this film but I'll pop it waaaay down the bottom of the page so no one gets spoiled. I wouldn't do that to you, you should know that about me by now.  

A Quiet Place was directed by John Krasinski (The Office) who co-wrote the film with Bryan Woods (Night Light) and Scott Beck (Night Light). I think those two are writing partners,.

It's Day 89. Of what? Wait two seconds and you'll find out. The Abbott family, Lee (Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt - The Girl on the Train); and their kids Regan (Millicent Simmonds - Wonderstruck), Marcus (Noah Jupe - The Titan), and their youngest, Beau (Cade Woodward, are foraging for food and medical supplies in an abandoned supermarket. No one makes a sound. Regan is deaf so the family communicate via sign language. Marcus is sick and Evelyn finds some antibiotics for him.

On their way back home, which is covered with sand (more on that later), a toy that young Beau plays with starts making noise. Panicking, Lee runs towards Beau.

There are monsters, see, and they are blind but they have an excellent sense of hearing. The slightest noise makes them rush towards it. If the thing making the noise is edible, they will eat it. The toy is a replica of a Space Shuttle and I would have taken it too. In fact, I actually own one, but it doesn't have flashy lights and beepy noises. I now wish it did.

There's a lot of this.

We fast-forward over a year and the family have made a farmhouse their home. It's rigged up with white and red lights as signals. White good; red bad. There is sand everywhere. This is so their footsteps don't make a sound. There be no stepping on crunchy leaves or snapping twigs here. Where did they get all this sand? There be no questions here.

 So much sand.

Lee tries to repair hearing aides for Regan but none of them have worked so far. Newspaper articles on a wall show the progression of events since the first encounter with these alien creatures. The military couldn't stop them. No one could stop them.

 Oh, and Evelyn is pregnant. Pergant. Prangent. I frikken love that video.

Frikken terrifying.

This film is tense as heck. Filled with white-knuckled, edge-of-your-seat moments; so much so that the slightest noise in the cinema bugged me - do not bring noisy bags of chips into this film, you will gain enemies. The lengths this family have gone to to ensure that no one makes a sound is pretty darn impressive. Paint on the floorboards guide your steps so you don't step on a creaky one. The only food that is served is quiet food - bread, fish, and absolutely no Doritos. Even lettuce leaves are used as plates. I mean, wow, they've thought of everything.

Performances all round were great, the kids are fantastic and I wonder if they have nightmares. The lack of spoken dialogue is not a problem at all. Sign language is subtitled and when the characters do talk, it's in breathless whispers. We learn about events through showing, there are no conveniently long conversations about what has happened and what is about to happen. I would love to read the screenplay for this so see how this was all crafted on paper.

I really enjoyed this film, except for one thing which I will discuss a bit further down. It's a fast-paced ninety minutes and you will hold your breath for most of it. Totes recommend for horror buffs.

Things I learnt: live somewhere near a lot of sand; waterfalls are loud enough to mask your frustrated yelling (in fact, you are encouraged to do so); noise-cancelling headphones are your friend so you can still listen to your favourite albums and podcasts so start bulk downloading them now, just in case.

This one is tough to score. I'd give it seven out of ten at face value. A tad lower when delving below the surface.

Spoilers and quibble after the trailer...

***** SPOILER ALERT *****

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Last warning.



Last last warning because I know what people are like.




OK.




Here goes....




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So.......



Do you know about refrigerator logic? It's when you see a film and everything is fine then you get home and you're standing in front of the fridge with the door open looking for something to eat and then a you suddenly think about something that happened in the film and you're like, 'Hang on, that didn't make sense...' I got a bad case of refrigerator logic pretty early in the film.

The thing that bugged me was this: why would you chose to give birth to a child in this situation? I haven't given birth but I've heard it's kinda painful and there's a lot of screaming involved. Granted, in the film Lee and Evelyn plan for this by setting off fireworks outside to cover the sound of Evelyn's screams but what it there is no one around to set them off? It's only by chance that Marcus is there in time to light the fuse.

So you've given birth without making too much of a fuss, and you've successfully set of fireworks as a distraction to these creatures with super-sensitive hearing, but what about the baby? I don't have one but I've heard that babies can be awfully noisy.

Sure, Lee and Evelyn also have a plan for this and make a room in the basement that is insulated by newspaper and covered with a mattress, and they also have a box filled with cushions and other noise-dampening items to muffle the screams of said child - it even has a lid on it. I mean, childhood trauma much? Are you going to make bigger and bigger boxes as the child grows? How long does it take for an infant to stop crying? Is it worth it?

The film did not broach any moral reasons behind Evelyn's decision to birth but it sure does make me want to raise the topic of abortion. Yes, that is a life or death decision, but this is a life or death situation. One sound from this newborn and the likelyhood of everyone dying is pretty frikken high. If there were ever a need for Planned Parenthood, this would be it.

Wouldn't you wait until everything was back to normal before bringing another child into the world? Would you risk the lives of the rest of your family by having a baby? This probably wouldn't bug me so much if Lee and Evelyn discussed this very problematic problem, albeit very quietly in hushed tones, but nothing was said and so I'm left with an unanswered question. Perhaps that is the point of the film? Even though, this was a major part of the story and not having this brought up made me annoyed.

End of rant.