Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different classic from the Nerdosphere.  This week Dave and Patrick review the 2018 survival-horror hit A Quiet Place!

The Flick:  A Quiet Place

What’s it About:  Evelyn and Lee Abbot struggle to keep their family alive in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by predatory creatures that are instantly attracted to sound.  The family’s fight for survival is further complicated by the impending birth of their child.

Metacritic Score: 82

The Nerds’ Take on A Quiet Place (2018):

Dave: Last week, we reviewed one of the best horror movies of the past decade, the thoroughly enjoyable The Cabin In The Woods. This week, we tackled another of the newer breed of horror films. A Quiet Place is a fantastic movie that is very different from just about any other movie of its kind. Maybe us children of the 80’s need to spend more time watching modern horror movies because this one was every bit as good as The Cabin In The Woods….and then some.

While we will need to wait for the upcoming sequel for some crucial backstory as to what exactly happened, what we do know is this: A race of invading creatures has, in essence, brought humanity and the world to its knees. We have to assume they are extraterrestrial in origin, but that is never explicitly stated. The creatures appear to be virtually invulnerable to any form of human weaponry. The real kicker is that the creatures are blind, but hunt and kill by their sense of sound which, to say the least, is highly advanced. This provides the conundrum for our family of heroes: Stay silent and survive. Obviously, that is a task much easier said than done. The conflict between constantly trying to remain relatively silent in a world clearly not conducive to that is the engine that makes this movie go. It is a constant and ever-present struggle that gets amplified to 11 when Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) is in the throes of labor and is trying to stifle screaming out in pain as she is being hunted by one of the creatures.

The Abbott Family is what this excellent movie is all about. They are haunted by the loss of one of the children early on in the crisis. Lee Abbott (John Krasinski), in particular, struggles with the loss of his youngest son. But he also tries to develop hearing aids for his deaf daughter, Regan, and this has taught the family to communicate in sign language. Regan also blames herself for the death of her brother and feels that her father blames her as well. The surviving son, Marcus, struggles with evolving into manhood and being brave in the face of unfathomable horrors. You genuinely care for the Abbotts, for all they have lost, and you hold out hope that they can somehow survive. Before the movie is done, more tragedy will take place, but a potential weakness of the creatures is stumbled upon by Regan and Evelyn.

It is remarkable what Krasinski, who directed and acted in the film, accomplished here. There is hardly any dialogue and yet the move speaks so much. The moments where the creatures are stalking the Abbotts are some of the best moments in horror movies over the past decade. There is a palpable sense of dread that I felt while watching these harrowing moments and wondering, all the while, how the heroes will escape their predicament. The moments where you actually see the creatures are few and far between, but their presence is always felt. I honestly cannot say I can recall watching a movie quite like this one and my biggest regret is that I did not see this one while it was in theaters. Krasinski and Blunt are awesome as the father and mother, respectively, and the performances of the kids (Millicent Simmonds as Regan and Noah Jupe as Marcus) are excellent as well.

A Quiet Place was critically acclaimed for good reason. Perhaps better than just about any other movie before, it really taps into some primal fears we all have and it amplifies those fears through the use of something unexpected…..silence. The acting and environment are what takes center stage. It may be a modern horror movie, but it is also a throwback to the days of psychological horror films that attacked your senses, rather than just tried to overwhelm you with gore. Unfortunately, the sequel was delayed due to COVID (what else is new, right?), but the trailer certainly seemed to suggest we would get to see what happened at the beginning of the crisis. It also strongly hinted at a much bigger world for the Abbotts to explore. A Quiet Place might actually be the start of a much larger franchise as it has some of the elements that have made The Walking Dead endure for so long. As far as this movie is concerned though, if you have not experienced it, and if you are even remotely a fan of horror (with a dash of sci-fi), then A Quiet Place is an absolute must-see.

Dave’s Rating: 4.5/5

Patrick:  My all-time favorite horror is the original Halloween, with a Alien a very close second.  Both of these films are amazing because of the way Carpenter and Scott created an atmosphere of growing tension, putting the audience on edge until giving them a thrill with action and a good scare.  Halloween creates their tension through clever appearances of Michael Myers in Haddonfield, IL, stalking an unaware Jamie Lee Curtis.  Alien is all about is all about silence, and the disturbances that disrupt that silence.  John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place borrows heavily from that ambience of silence with the added twist that to make any sound will likely mean your death.

The audience is thrust into this world shortly (89 days) after it has been decimated by creatures who are extremely sensitive to sound and quickly kill the source.  John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are Lee and Evelyn Abbot.  They have three children: Marcus, Regan, and Beau.  The family communicates via sign language on account of Regan being deaf.  During an excursion to find medicine for Marcus, the youngest son Beau is tragically caught and killed by the creatures due to a noisy toy rocket Regan gave to him after Lee had taken it away.  The family continues to survive after this tragedy and the story picks ups just over a year later.  The family is trying to survive and preparing for the arrival of another child.  Their efforts to remain silent and hidden are challenged in various ways culminating into a thrilling finish.

This movie is such a great flip on the typical suspense-horror narrative.  This all about keeping the silence and the tension of such efforts.  Every noise made is one that puts the family and the audience on edge.  Add in the emotional weight the various members of the families are experiencing and the monsters can quickly fade into the background before they strike.  Millicent Simmonds in particular is great as Regan, who feels her father resents her for Beau’s death.  Blunt and Krasinski are constantly on edge trying to keep their children safe and quiet.  They still grieve for Beau, but they have hope for their unborn child and put forward every effort to ensure Evelyn can have the child in relative safety.  Of course, none of it goes as planned and the audience is gifted with some terrific acting from Blunt (bathtub scene anyone?).  This film is a fine piece of edge of your seat tension from the moment the rules of the creatures are established.  Add in the element of a grieving family desperate to survive and you have a thoroughly enjoyable horror flick.

Patrick’s Rating:  3.75/5

Overall Nerds Rating for A Quiet Place (2018):  4.12/5