Review: ‘A Quiet Place’ is a thriller worth the price of admission

Warning: spoilers!

Jonathan McCaslin, Staff Writer

In a world where movies like “Truth or Dare”, “Happy Death Day” and “Lights Out” reuse the same old horror tropes we’ve become accustomed to, “A Quiet Place” brings in a whole new era of modern horror. By giving us a world that’s truly horrifying to watch, director John Krasinski has created what most people are calling a modern-day classic.

The story begins with two parents and their three children. We’re given the information that this family is 89 days into an apocalyptic world. The family moves with caution, careful to not cause any noise inside a run-down convenience store they’ve come upon for supplies. They don’t speak but communicate with sign language, an element that both adds beauty and fear to the film.

Jump forward a year later and we see the family on their farm. Evelyn, the mother, looks as if she could deliver her next child at any moment. Lee, the father, attempts to upgrade his daughter’s hearing implant (both she and the actress who plays her are deaf) but fails. He later takes his son to fish and explains that, as long as there are louder sounds to cover their actions, the family will be safe.

Or so they thought.

On their journey back home, Lee and his son encounter one of the beasts (what they call Death Angels) that plague their world. An elderly man screams, revealing his position to the monsters. We then see Evelyn alone at the house. She goes into the family’s soundproof basement, hoping to ride the night out and to avoid detection by the beasts outside her home.

What makes this movie work so well is the character performance done by the actors. You can truly see fear on their faces as they hide for their lives. The actor who struck me the most, however, was Millicent Simmonds. Her portrayal as Regan, the eldest daughter who’s deaf, adds an extra element to the film about facing a grief-stricken world while living with a disability. It should also be noted that Krasinski pushed for Simmonds to be cast as Regan. He wanted a deaf actress to play Regan and struck gold when Simmonds auditioned.

In short, Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” is a new take on modern horror that keeps you on edge through its entirety. It’s well written, clever, and (without spoiling) provides a greater narrative about parenting as a whole. With a score of 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, “A Quiet Place” is definitely worth the price of the ticket.