A Quiet Place Movie Review

By: Lynn Barker

In A Quiet Place, the Abbott family has learned to live in total silence after blind monster aliens who hunt by sound invade our planet. The slightest noise attracts death to the family farm. They’ve already lost one family member. Do these all ears and teeth monsters have any weaknesses? Mom is about to have a baby and babies cry…loudly. Can anybody save the Abbotts?

Dad Lee has to leave pregnant wife Evelyn at homeCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Meet the Abbotts

It’s 2020 and monster aliens have invaded Earth. They are toothy, blind master hunters and locate prey by sound. Most of the world just couldn’t keep quiet. In a deserted upstate New York town, the Abbott family quietly scrounges for prescription drugs and food at an abandoned market. They manage to pack up what they need but, on the way home, the youngest, Beau (Cade Woodward) plays with a space shuttle toy just given him by his older tween sis Regan (Millicent Simmonds). Sadly, it makes all kinds of noise and little Beau is taken.

The barefoot family treks silently homeCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

At Home

Over a year later, dad Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) continues to send out S.O.S.s via Morse code on his radio trying to reach anyone alive. The family uses sign language to communicate and knows there are at least three aliens who roam their immediate area. They all still silently mourn Beau, especially Regan, who feels responsible for his death and thinks her dad no longer loves her. There are close calls as son Marcus (Noah Jupe) accidentally knocks over a lamp drawing a creature or is it just really big rats? Mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt) is pregnant and her due date is soon.

Regan argues in sign language with dadCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

It Won’t Work

Regan is deaf and dad keeps trying to improve her hearing aid with spare radio parts and also works to boost the signal on his ham radio in order to reach other humans. Regan signs to dad that it won’t work and she’s sick of him trying. Mom is left alone when dad and Marcus go fishing on a noisy river, the only place that drowns out their normal level talking. Regan isn’t allowed to go along. Marcus tells dad to let Regan know he still loves her. After trying out a new hearing aid with a boosted signal dad made, Regan decides to run away when it only makes screechy noises and doesn’t work. Meanwhile, mom silently cries up in Beau’s old room. Dad and Marcus are late coming home when they come across an old man whose wife has just been killed. He doesn’t want to live and yells loudly, attracting the monsters.

Dad Lee desperately tries to keep young Marcus quietCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Birthing Horror

Home alone, mom’s water breaks. The baby is on the way. It doesn’t help when she steps on a big nail and wants to scream soooo badly. Labor sets in and she tries to be quiet as creatures enter the house and even the room she is in.  She manages to turn on lights that indicate to her husband that creatures are near her. Out in the cornfield, dad sets off noisy fireworks to attract the creatures. After a lot of silent suffering, Evelyn has her baby boy and it starts to cry but the family has devised a tiny oxygen mask that can keep baby breathing yet stifle cries.

Evelyn (Emily Blunt) tries to be silent during childbirthCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

A Family Divided

Regan and Marcus reunite in the cornfield after close calls and end up inside a big grain silo fending off a creature. Dad has gone to look for them while mom tries to hide from a creature at home and keep baby quiet. Will the Abbotts reunite? Will any of them survive? Will any family member discover the alien creatures’ weakness and fight back?

Marcus and Regan inside the grain siloCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Wrapping Up

I think this says it all: You could have heard a pin drop in the theater throughout the movie when I saw it. Not one audience member said a word or even coughed. It’s as if they believed that doing so would destroy the characters on the screen as well as themselves! There is minimal use of music in the movie and it is effective, totally fitting and adds to the storytelling when it chimes in.

Regan and Marcus run from alien monstersCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

A Quiet Place is one frightening movie. The tension holds throughout with very few moments to “rest”. Acting is top notch with the entire cast making you believe they are terrified yet capable of using various creative defenses against the noise of everyday living. Emily Blunt can break your heart and suck you in with facial expressions of joy, pain, horror, humor and love that testify to what a really great actress she is. Her hubby, actor/director/writer John Krasinski is very convincing as a desperate dad trying to hold his family together and kid actors Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds are extraordinary in mostly silent roles.

Actor/Director John Krasinski directs wife Emily BluntCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

You care deeply about this family and root for them throughout. This, combined with the great acting, original premise and well-executed direction make us give A Quiet Place a rare five stars!

A Quiet Place Movie Rating: 

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

See A Quiet Place in theaters now!

Have Your Say

Could you live your life without making a sound if you had to? How scary are creatures who can find you if you do more than barely whisper? What if you sneeze….or burp? Comment quietly below.