In preparation for the Halloween season, I watched “A Quiet Place,” and after finding a surprising amount of both suspense and thrill, I’m pleased to recommend it as one of the best movies to watch during the spooky season.
“A Quiet Place,” both directed by and starring John Krasinski, follows a family as they live in a world of complete silence. This world looks similar to our own modern world, with one key difference: monsters that kill and destroy anything that makes a sound. The family, consisting of father Lee (John Krasinski), mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and son Marcus (Noah Jupe), must learn to live and communicate without using sound. The movie utilizes both American Sign Language (ASL) and subtitles to help the viewers understand the very intense and emotional dialogue and plot. As the family begins to adapt to this new world, the kids grow older and take on responsibilities to protect themselves and their parents, like venturing out to find their own food and creating loud noises to act as distractions if need be. Unfortunately, Lee limits Regan’s ability to learn these skills by making her stay home on countless occasions. Regan is deaf, and would not be able to hear the oncoming monsters, since her family is unable to make a hearing aid that works for her, this would put her in a dangerous situation whenever she goes out. As a result, Regan is troubled with the idea that she may not be as useful as she could be to her family, given their perilous situation. This is compounded by the fact that Regan also believes her father blames her for the death of her younger brother, Beau, who was killed months prior when he played with a battery-operated noise-making airplane in the woods, given to him by Regan.
As the days pass, the family takes multiple precautions in case of an encounter with the creatures, including making a plan for when pregnant Evelyn’s water breaks. As the due date inches closer, one mistake leads to another, and Evelyn ends up alone in the house when her water breaks. What follows is a fast-paced and anxiety-ridden race against time as the family attempts to lure the creatures away from the house so Evelyn can give birth.
There are not many people shown outside of this family in the film, but those who are bring forth a deeper sense of suspense and anxiety. When Lee and Marcus are walking back to their house after visiting a waterfall, for example, they come across an older man who has just lost his wife. Giving up on life, the man screams, drawing the mysterious creatures to his location to kill him. This gave the movie a lived-in sense of danger, as Lee and Marcus are forced to run to safety in a very short amount of time. The scene also shows how unnatural and difficult it is to live in a world where sound can kill.
This movie expertly plays on the use of music to create suspense. Since the characters cannot talk to communicate, the film is usually pretty silent. The only sound heard in most scenes is that of the background music, which creates an eerie feeling. However, the most notable sound in the film was the only lyrical song, playing through headphones as Lee and Evelyn danced. The song, “Harvest Moon,” by Neil Young, alludes to a sense of longing for a life left behind, a life that might never be possible again.
What makes this movie so rewatchable and entertaining is not necessarily the concept itself, although it’s very intriguing, but the way the family communicates. Living in our world where sound is essential can be hard enough as it is, but imagine living in a world where we not only have to stay quiet all the time but must also rely on sound in order to stay alive. This ambivalent concept of the necessity of sound is very interesting and is explored in vast detail in the film. The mysterious creatures appear to only have a sense of sound, and yet still manage to kill. Consequently, the humans need to keep quiet, while needing noise to figure out where the creatures are or measure how loud they are. Learning to communicate without sound is difficult, but the family does the best they can given the circumstances.
“A Quiet Place” is not only the perfect thriller movie to watch to prepare for Halloween, but also can be a great segue into learning more about ASL. This movie shows that there is more than one way to effectively communicate, and should be used as a reminder that communication is integral to society, no matter how it’s done.