A Quiet Place Stifles Our Screams

You would expect shrilling screams and raucous noises in a typical scary movie. A Quiet Place presents a strikingly different thriller movie to the theaters. As the name suggests, the movie takes place in a disaster-stricken world where humans must be silent in order to hide from the blind yet bloodthirsty monsters with superior hearing.

The family in the movie has the advantage of knowing how to communicate in sign language as their daughter is born deaf. They try to survive in the silent world, but the ominous date of the mother’s pregnancy awaits. Surviving without making a sound is one thing, but giving birth without any professional help while being forbidden from making sounds is a difficult matter. The story gradually moves closer to the time of childbirth as the tension rises.

In the process, the audience becomes very emotionally invested into the family’s issues. Every clumsy noise, every fumble, every accident makes the audience’s heart skip a beat. “It’s as if we are part of the movie,” Jessie Wu (10B) shared, “We don’t dare to make a sound.” Helen Kim (10A) added, “I was secretly watching it in my room…and Ken [my brother] shouted ‘Helen, come out and eat dinner!’, and I was like ‘Shut up!'”

It doesn’t help that the husband and wife of the movie are casted by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, a loving couple in real life. Their affection for each other and unity as a family becomes even more heartfelt. Additionally, the characters’ deaf daughter is acted by Millicent Simmonds, an actress with hearing impairment. The cast’s personal connection with their characters adds an extra touch of authenticity to the otherwise simple characters.

The unique idea and genuine acting in A Quiet Place made it a huge hit not only in the United States, but also the international market. Its success is surprising, taken into account how the entire movie production process only costed 18 million USD, 5% of the budget of another recent film Infinity War. The relatively low budget of 18 million dollars did compromise some of its special effects and limited its time to a mere 90 minutes, but the well-controlled usage of sound kept the movie suspenseful.

Featured Image: Youtube screenshot of Film poster courtesy of Maxresdefault