Review of A Quiet Place (2018) by Loveland — 04 May 2018

A Quiet Place is likely one of the most suspenseful movies I've ever seen. From the first scene to the end there is not a single moment of relief. While billed as a horror/suspense thriller, this film to me was more a story about family. While I can't delve into this more specifically without spoilers, I can say many of the decisions and events that unfold are due to the relationship dynamics between the parents and kids. This movie, while basic in it's plot, is a grand story of survival and perseverance. Every sound, no matter how loud, causes you to hold your breath throughout the duration of the film. While many criticized the fact that there was never an explicit explanation for how the monsters came, I thought this lack of explanation made the monsters more mysterious and more frightening. As someone who is often critical of movie monsters, I really liked the design of these creatures as they seemed relatively natural while being perfect killing machines. There are plenty of little things throughout the movie, if you're lucky enough to see them, that either add to their mystery or perhaps answer some questions you may have about them. The acting is all around very well done, which may be an understatement as I may not have a good comparison for acting without dialogue. My biggest problem with this movie is the way it ended. While I have no problem with the events that took place, I wish they hadn't stopped the movie when they did. I also thought there were some decisions made by the characters that were just bad or unnecessary, yet unfortunately I can't delve into this without revealing spoilers.

Overall this is a tremendous movie that I would highly recommend.