A Quiet Place Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A family attempts to survive their everyday life while dealing with deadly creatures that will attack anything making sound.

Review: This is going to be tough to explain. Hmm..."A Quiet Place" is the worst good movie I've probably ever watched. What does that mean? It means that the production is topnotch, with some of the best use of sound to enhance the tension. The style and cinematography are also impressive to create a unique atmosphere where you hear more wind blowing than actual dialogue. Furthermore, the acting was surprisingly good from the players since they speak little. Much of their character development and interactions must be expressed rather than told. Speaking of which, the drama was presented nicely and allows you to care and feel for the characters. In a way, "A Quiet Place" is like watching a silent movie where the theater staff is applying the sound effects like in the old days. Due to this, things become more of an experience than your typical fare. All of these facets are impressive to say the least.

Now, despite how masterfully the technical aspects are constructed, the story is a hot mess of epic proportions. The entire premise of the story is completely outlandish, nonsensical, and outright stupid. You don't just make an artsy type movie with extensive and meticulous attention to detail only to throw that shit right out the window when writing the story! First up, the origin of the creatures is kept vague except this isn't the kind of movie where you can get away with that shit. It's implied they're aliens, but this was not the right direction whatsoever. This should be an isolated tale about one family struggling to survive and not knowing what's happening. Oh, sure, you could imply that it's affecting the world but don't bring those problems into the story. By doing this, the writers turned a promising story into plot hole-infested Swiss cheese.

So let's get a few things straight. The creatures have super hearing, super strength, are blind, few in number, and allegedly indestructible. Their hearing abilities are inconsistent and indefensible. They supposedly can't hear small noises if they're drowned out, yet, how do they distinguish a dropped picture frame from the river running, the wind blowing, the crunching of leaves, the chirping of birds and bugs, etc.? Why can't they hear someone's heartbeat or breathing? How do they get everywhere so fast when we see they're probably slower than a car. There are countless ways you could trick these creatures with sound like with timed pings that would have they bouncing all over the place perpetually. To make things worse, their hearing abilities are their weakness too! So a regular old shotgun can kill these guys if you make a high-pitched sound?! Okay, so how did they take over the world? The military has sonic weapons, it wouldn't take much to figure out how to exploit their weakness, and I doubt their armor is really that strong if a shotgun can get through it when their weakened. Missiles, bombs, lasers, plasma, nukes, etc. can't kill 'em but a deaf girl and her mom can?! Yeaaah, okaaay. Plus, that "lock 'n load" final shot was outright embarrassing.

A few other things: where did the dad get all of that sand to walk on? The creatures can't hear the sand being stepped on? The rain doesn't wash it away? How did they set up any of the things to soundproof to begin with? Those lights, for example, are nailed up aren't they? That makes sound. What about the crackling of the fire? It sure is convenient that we don't see how they got through winter with the crunching of the snow. Yeah, I see how the mom cooked food, but we don't see the preparation phase without sound. How are they gardening in the first place with no sound? That baby being born was ridiculous. And babies aren't that damn quiet. Ugh. It's just so infuriating that this plot line was mishandled and many critics and audiences are ignoring it.

I'm torn with "A Quiet Place" because I did enjoy it, however, it's so hard to ignore the glaring flaws. This is like "Signs" where the aliens never stood a chance and their weakness is too damn strong in the first place. But, unlike "Signs," this film's problems are persistent rather than being introduced at the end. I appreciate the technical aspects and the attempt to incorporate a touching family drama into a horror. Sadly, I just can't suspend my disbelief in a situation like this. Something like "Gremlins" where you have to forgive the rules is understandable, because it's a lighthearted story with fantastical elements. With "A Quiet Place," the filmmakers are dead serious, making it harder to overlook the faults that should have been quite apparent from the onset. Overall, this is a genuinely good movie, but the overwhelming plot holes prevent it from being great.

Notable Moment: When the youngest son gets killed is shocking. Because it's the beginning of the film, I suppose the audience will feel like the characters are safe especially a little kid.

Final Rating: 6.5/10

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