A Quiet Place

After spending a few years with Netflix, last fall I switched over to Hulu for a change. I finally got to check out 'Game of Thrones', which got me hooked from the first episode. I got to find out what all the hub-bub was all about...and got stuck there like everyone else! Yanking myself back to a Netflix subscription to catch up on my old shows, I found myself with both Netflix AND Hulu for awhile. Only because I find new binge-watching worthy material all the time with Hulu. Just this past week I discovered a couple gems that have been hiding. One is 'A Quiet Place' starring its director and co-writer, John Krasinski, as Lee Abbot. This is NOT the 2016 Romanian movie of only 24 minutes of the same name, or game. This 2018 movie, 'A Quiet Place' is an emotionally moving flick that easily fits into multiple big screen genres at once: Drama, Science Fiction, Horror, and Thriller.

The movie starts out very quiet. I had only glanced at the description Hulu provided before deciding to give it a shot since I love both Horror and Sci-Fi. I relaxed with my cell in hand, for the latest news of the day to read while I watched. It didn't take long for me to perk right up (less than 2 minutes!) and put my cell down when I realized they REALLY couldn't make a single sound! They used sign language and walked barefoot. This kind of behavior got me interested enough to pay attention and actually watch.

Before too long into watching, you find out how absolutely tragic world events a year earlier have led up to the changing of human life as we all know it...except for this one loving family that the film centers around. Humans are social creatures, after all, and even families need other families to socialize with and vent frustrations to. The Abbot family's saving grace is in the form of Regan, played by the actress Millicent Simmonds. Due to Regan's deafness, sign language became the Abbots' first language within the sudden Apocalyptic change of communication and social structure. Already pretty deep for a horror flick!

The constant need not to make any sound, every action done by the Abbots is performed with a sense of being in total awareness of their surroundings at all times. You do see, if you pay attention to the tiny details (and this movie demands it) they really aren't alone in the vicinity. But social-distancing to keep safe prevails throughout your time watching them. The subtle theme of 'smashing the patriarch' properly fits the extreme changes of the world in which 'A Quiet Place' takes place. It also fits the everyday world we live in today. There is no other evidence of this than in Regan and her mother, Evelyn, the only two women in a family of five. The Abbot family matriarch, portrayed by Emily Blunt, is nothing short of emotional from the very get-go, and she only speaks one line throughout the movie. Her husband, Lee Abbot, will just as equally tug at your heart-strings. You know he must feel absolutely helpless in protecting his loved ones within such a strange new world full of carnivorous monsters that use ultra-sensitive hearing to hunt prey! And these things are out in the day and night searching for food. I found it refreshing that Lee understood, in this new post-Apocalyptic world of silence, we ALL still need to release pent up frustrations. He's perfect. You can tell he thinks ahead and you see him guide his family through a dangerous time in a healthy, yet very safe way. And who doesn't love a strong, capable, sensitive man? You see this in how he balances his roles amongst his family members, who include young Cade Woodward's character, Beau Abbot, and the eldest Abbot son, Marcus, played by Noah Jupe.

I loved every second of this movie! 'A Quiet Place' is worth watching more than once...although maybe not within the 24 or 48 hours of your first viewing, the way I did! As soon as it was over, I gave it a thumbs up on Hulu and saved it. Just like my 'Game of Thrones' binge-watch (which I definitely have developed a severe addiction to as far as TV series go) or the one song (like Marilyn Manson's 'Say 10') that you feel the need to listen to over and over again, I simply can't get enough! Thank GOODNESS I got to see this thrilling Horror movie gem before the sequel gets released in September 2020. I think it will be worth going to the theater for...unless WE have to social-distance due to a pandemic. Or something. One day at a time!

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