Review of A Quiet Place (2018) by Robert M — 04 Aug 2018

Admittedly, I'm invariably quite sceptical when it comes to horror flicks. So often the genre fails to deliver on its tacit pledge to scare. And too often it attempts to insight such fear through gratuitous gore, overly frequent jump scares, or simply by falling back onto one of the many hackneyed horror movie tropes - zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts etc.

That being said; originality can prove a laudable virtue to the upcoming films of the horror genre. Originality - precisely what 'A Quiet Place' has shown it possesses. And while the premise is indeed original, it is also ostensibly simple: don't make a sound lest you attract the monsters. But that isn't to say this simple premise makes for an insipid narrative. Quite the contrary. 'A Quiet Place' pulls off something remarkable. It's not solely concerned with the most gruesome aspects of the genre, no, to its merit it bears a pleasantly varied focus on the more subtextual motifs of family, love and loss. As a result, its attention to nuance makes 'A Quiet Place' not only a great horror film, but a great film in general.

But aside from the meriting subtextuallity of the film is the practical implication of its premise. I can confidently attest that I have never sat through a movie where the entire cinema was in suspended silence. But that's what the premise, nay the title, demanded - Quiet. And so, for what feels like a considerable chunk of the film, you along with a couple hundred other patrons find yourselves caught in a perpetual atmosphere of silent suspense. And I stress the word - suspense!

'A Quiet Places'' strength resides in its ability to refrain from lazily delving into the trite variety of bland and honestly disappointing pool of horror movie clichés. It's a film that should pride itself on its unique brand of premise and narrative - both of which make for a refreshing and valuable precedent within the horror movie genre.