Originally written April 13, 2018

Every so often, a concept for a movie comes around that just really strikes you. A Quiet Place was that kind of movie for me. When I first saw a trailer for it, I was immediately hooked. The best thing that this movie has going for it is its originality. Also, while it’s a good movie in its own right, seeing it in a theater was a great experience. Since the movie is so silent most of the time, everyone in the theater was really silent as well. I remember that I came off as loud because I was eating popcorn. And it’s not like I was eating it loudly or obnoxiously. But the theater itself was so quiet that any little noise became more noticeable. It was quite the experience.

So, as the title implies, A Quiet Place is a horror movie that plays a lot with silence. The premise is that there are monsters out there that hunt people by noise. They’re blind, so they can only track you if you make a noise. However, if you do, they will be on you within seconds. It’s just one of those movies that manages to be beautiful in its simplicity, yet winds up being such a cool concept that you can’t help but be enthralled.

My chief complaint for the movie is purely about its pacing. It’s the kind of movie that has a really slow start. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it’s a tricky thing to work with. A movie like The Shining did it really well, where the first hour or so is slow, but it’s still really interesting and continually builds. A Quiet Place’s concept of working with silence only winds up working against it in the beginning, because it’s hard to make things interesting when there isn’t any spoken dialogue. Also, the movie doesn’t really build, per se. Once crap hits the fan, it does get a lot better, but even after this point there are still some lulls in the movie here and there. It’s not like a beneficial moment of levity, either, it’s just a pacing issue.

However, aside from some pacing problems, everything else in the movie is really special. The movie scores so many points with me purely for its originality. It’s rare that we get to see a movie with such a fun concept, and so I think that alone is worth the price of admission. However, I loved everything else about the movie too, from its acting and directing to its creature and sound designs. While it is a little flawed, A Quiet Place is still a must-see for horror fans, because it’s such a fresh experience.

4/5