A Quiet Place Blu-ray Review

By: Lynn Barker

Blind, man-eating aliens invade Earth In A Quiet Place. They can hear the tiniest noise and the Abbott family has learned to live in total silence on their 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?

The barefoot family hikes back from townCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Family Loss

Monster aliens have invaded Earth in 2020. 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. On the way home, the youngest, Beau (Cade Woodward) plays with a space shuttle toy just given him by his deaf, older tween sis Regan (Millicent Simmonds). Sadly, it makes all kinds of noise and little Beau is taken.

Lee and Evelyn try to have a normal relationshipCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

A Year Later

It’s a year later and 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. Mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt) will have a baby soon.

Regan tells dad to stop trying to build a better hearing aidCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Attracting Monsters

Dad keeps trying to improve Regan’s hearing aid with spare radio parts and works to boost the signal on his ham radio in order to reach other humans. Regan is sick of him trying and failing. Mom is left alone when dad and Marcus go fishing on a noisy river, the only place that drowns out their talking. 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 must keep his son quietCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Birth from Hell

When she is home alone, mom’s 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 knows that a monster is in the houseCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Split Up

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?

Dad and kids know an alien monster is nearbyCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Special Extra Features

The sound and visuals on this home entertainment Blu-ray set are perfectly crisp. There are only three extras but they are all interesting.

• Creating the Quiet – This is the behind-the-scenes, making-of featurette and it covers the producers’ desire to create a new kind of horror film that was family-centered and relatable. The two young writers got the basic idea in college and never thought their creation would get produced. We learn how actor/director John Krasinski got involved and was thrilled to work with talented actress/wife Emily Blunt. Rural location finds and hiring a real life deaf actress to play the tween daughter are discussed. She and the actor playing her younger brother bonded through sign language.  Very interesting extra.
• The Sound of Darkness – this extra deals with sound editing and creation which is so very important in a film in which sound plays such a huge part. The sound of water, blowing trees, feet crunching on sand to the horrible sounds the creatures make, all were important to the success of the film. John Krasinski learned “There is a power to NOT speaking”. We hear from sound designers who found the movie a refreshing challenge. Very cool extra!
• A Reason for Silence – the feature focuses on the creation and development of the alien creatures. John first pictured an ancient fish-like critter with no eyes and flaps covering ears. The ILM effects wizards developed a really unique alien. It looked so cool that filmmakers decided that audiences should see it more. However, only an actor in a motion capture suit was on set for the actors to relate to. Really nice feature!

Director John on set with wife EmilyCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Wrapping Up

Although I would have liked an audio commentary by actor/director John Krasinski and/or wife Emily Blunt and a blooper reel would have been fun, the three extras available are very interesting and informative.

Evelyn and daughter Regan plan to kill the creaturesCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

A Quiet Place is the most unique horror film of this or almost any other year.
We really care about this family and not only want them to survive but learn the aliens’ weaknesses and defeat them. The entire cast does a totally involving and amazing job.

Dad must keep his son quietCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

The original story premise and the skill with which it is told on film make this one a must for true horror fans to collect and gift. Extras are nice but we could have used more. We can go four stars for this Blu-ray/DVD/Digital home entertainment package.

A Quiet Place Blu-ray Rating: 

A Quiet Place will be available to buy Tuesday, July 10^th

Have Your Say

Did you see the film in theaters? Are you excited to take it home? Could you, family and friends survive if you could not make even a tiny sound? Get loud and talk about it with a comment below.