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'A Quiet Place' Review

Film Review

By Natasha MawoPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

A Quiet Place is pretty much what it says on the card. It’s quiet... Very quiet. Which may sound strange at first but is the most entertaining part of the film. Let’s talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:

The cinematography was actually good; some clever ideas were explored like the sand. I like that it’s not only there so the sound of their footsteps hitting the ground is drowned out but also helps them map where they’ve been so that they know if it's safe/if there are any supplies. The lights are my favorite because they light the way and change to red when in danger which is a small visual detail that sort of made me happy. I mean, in a world where you should not make any noise, the idea of lights, especially this many, is smart. I don’t know whether that's obvious? Am I just an idiot?

Performance was a strong point in this; even the children weren’t terrible which is a rarity in film. Children shouldn't get a free pass for being terrible actors when we've seen that there great child actors out there. The little boy’s (Marcus) reactions killed me; he constantly looked terrified, for example when the dad basically volunteers for them to go fishing and he’s scared because he doesn’t want to die, which is totally understandable. He proceeds to freak out because he thinks that he’ll make too much noise then his dad does the strangest thing: he screams! He screams and Marcus is scared shitless. His face is priceless. Of course we have to talk about the iconic execution of the birth scene in the bathtub; it's quite insane and from the acting alone, the tension was great. Emily Blunt deserves all the awards from that one scene alone.

This is quite obvious but the sound design is great. I mean, it has to be because the emphasis on sound in this is important. I’m pretty sure most of the budget for the film went to nailing the sound which really shows as it was certainly not spent on the creature effects but I’m glad they did it that way.

The creatures are not the scariest part of this film, the freaking baby is. That baby, even before being born, is terrifying to me because in a world where you have to be quiet, why the hell would you think of having a baby? Heck, when would you even find the time and place to have sex? First of all, you would have to be extremely quiet and second of all, it seems like you are constantly with the kids, what did you send them away onto the field? Anyway, the baby is scary because babies are loud, that’s what they do, so you know they are doomed as soon as it comes into play. It’s not a bad point it's just an interesting plot advancement tool, y’know, the baby.

The Bad:

It’s a horror so you know jump cuts are there, which is annoying. Horror is generally not a thing of mine so I jumped at all of them. This film is better than jump scares and by that I mean jump scares with non diegetic music over it to really make it more shocking. The reason why in this particular film it's pretty easy to place jump scares anywhere is due to the silence; usually in horrors when they want to place a jump scare, they make everything very still and quiet, but the thing is MOST OF THE FILM IS STILL AND QUIET thus making it really easy to put a jump scare at any point in the film. Visual scares are scarier than jump scares because I get over jump scares fast but am usually haunted by an image forever.

It was kind of predictable. You knew who was going to die, how and what was going to happen towards the end, which is a little bit annoying, especially the ending because I hoped that they wouldn't do it. I mean, I think it would have been great if they all died fighting and then maybe just Marcus and the baby are left and the audience is left wondering how on earth he is going to survive. That would have be an epic ending.

At first I thought that the whole "dad blames me for the death of baby brother" thing was poorly done but I’ve changed my mind and will put that as a good point. It’s easy to see why Regan would think this because he never expresses anything else other than neglect towards her. The same applies to his son, Marcus, who didn’t really think that his dad loved him either until they had the talk by the water. That's understandable because I’m guessing that they don’t really communicate much. There was a scene that I loved which was Emily and John basically saying they love each other but without saying anything, they just slow dance together with music coming from earphones. It's sweet and even though it's not relevant to the plot, I’m glad they kept it in there.

The Ugly

This is not a film to watch in the cinema. I had quite an irritating experience watching this in the cinema as the fire exit light took me out of it. The loud chewing of food took me out of the experience especially due to how quiet the movie is. Also, if an extremely loud film is playing in the screen next to yours it makes it annoying to really get sucked into the film.

Overall it was a pretty great film and I would recommend you watch it.

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