Day 89 was a bitch. This is where A Quiet Place begins; whatever happened has long since happened and the Abbott family of five became the Abbott family of four on Day 89, when the youngest made the mistake of flipping the “ON” switch for his age-appropriate space shuttle toy. You see, the creatures that knocked humans off the top of the food chain can’t see, but -oh my- can they ever hear.
The villains in A Quiet Place are a set of lightning-fast, powerful, and seemingly vengeful monsters, kinda like a Hellbeast equivalence of the old man who angrily waves a cane while screaming, “You kids turn down that noise!” Perhaps when the inevitable prequel comes along, we will discover more about these guys. For now, however, here’s what we got: Imagine a human cheetah (just for size and speed purposes). Now picture faster, uglier, and with better hearing, no eyes, bigger claws, and sharper teeth, one who reacts with deadly force to every sound it hears. Their ferocity for attack is surpassed only by their speed. And when the attack happens, there’s roughly a zero percent chance of survival (+/- 0% error). When your four-year-old-child flips the switch on a noise-making toy, maybe you should be thankful he’s all the creatures took.
This apocalypse has left only ghost towns and isolated encampments on the planet. The Abbott family doesn’t talk. They sign everything. Anything above a mouthed whisper has the chance of attracting the predators. Is their survival to this point entirely owed to having a deaf/mute eldest daughter (Millicent Simmonds)? It would seem so. The Abbotts have mastered silent communication where entire cities around the globe have not.
A year later, the remaining Abbotts are still surviving. Dad (writer/director John Krasinski) has rules. One involves only stepping where a sand trail has been laid. Vehicle travel and night travel are completely out-of-bounds. Their quiet-as-a-library homestead is divided into painted steps and negative space: any child who has played “hot lava” in the living room will get the concept. The reason is clear – this patch doesn’t creak; this patch might; do not give those things any reason to pay attention to our house. There are no traditional tools in the house. Nor utensils. Nor plates. Steaming is the preferred method of cooking. They have a bathroom, but I imagine it’s just decorative at this point; running water and plumbing are no-nos. The Abbotts are masters of farming and electricity, both necessary for survival and (relatively) quiet if employed correctly. Noise = Death. We see this when the creatures take out a raccoon for roof hijinks; good gravy, do they leave anything alive? Do they eat anything? Mom (Emily Blunt) is pregnant, just days away from (replacing ?) the child lost. How the Hell are the Abbotts going to keep a baby silent?
If this were not clear already, A Quiet Place is one of the great and unique thrillers of this century. This is a film you cannot look away from, like Alien or The Silence of the Lambs. It’s not just that humans are hopelessly outmatched against a superior life form, the atmosphere of silence is almost a personification unto itself. Anything spoken aloud in the film is shocking and intense. When is the last time you could say that about a film, any film? If I have anything negative to say about A Quiet Place it is simply that it ended too soon. When the credits appeared, I actually gasped aloud, “WAIT! That can’t be it! There’s more! There HAS to be more!”
Is A Quiet Place a tough watch? So many of you hate horror and 
I don’t blame you. It’s not as scary as the films listed above; that might not help. I’ll put it this way — the horror is omnipresent, but there isn’t a ton of blood/gore and the hardest scene to watch in the whole film involved not the monsters, but an exposed nail.
I read another critic’s comment that it’s time to take John Krasinki seriously as a director. That may be a huge understatement. The difference between goofball Jim from “The Office” and the director of A Quiet Place is the difference between whisper and shout. What shouldn’t go unnoticed here is the depth of silent acting in this film. There is obviously little dialogue, so faces have to say a great deal, especially from the youngsters (Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe). This is definitely a film where if the actors can’t sell fear, the film loses most of its power. A Quiet Place is a goggle-eyed blast. It’s the kind of film you watch with the intensity of a countdown clock. I’m sure this awesome will be spoiled future parodies and sequels, but for now, this is one heckuva ride.
With a rage, the apocalypse has zoomed
Now skeletons where once cities boomed
Perhaps no collapse
If we shut our traps
No wonder humanity is doomed
Rated PG-13, 90 Minutes
Director: John Krasinski
Writer: Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of intensity
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Those who would rather the end of the world came with instructions
