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| Courtesy: http://empirecinemas.co.uk |
I walked into the cinema hall to watch A Quiet Place without any background whatsoever; I don’t think I’ve done this for any movie, especially horror. We’d seen intriguing posters in all the tube stations and the fact that Emily Blunt was in it was good enough to buy the tickets. I drew my breath in during the first scene and let it out only after the credits rolled – A Quiet Place easily makes its way into the top five horror movies for me.
The starting point of the story is a few months post an apocalyptic event. And so, the opening scene takes us through an abandoned American neighbourhood, into the darkened aisles of a supermarket where the Abbott family is ferreting out useful supplies as quietly as possible. The silence is unbearable as the scene progresses and the sense of unease builds as the family communicates in sign language (not least because one of their children is hearing impaired). When the little one picks up a toy rocket, the sheer terror of the parents makes you gasp, although you don’t know why. It’s too loud, the terrified father signs. Too loud for what? Well, you’ll know in a few minutes and your pulse rate never goes down after that.
The plot is simple – you make a noise and you’ll be hunted. We are a noisy planet so presumably the culling was swift. Now, there are very few survivors. And to continue to survive, you must tiptoe your way through life. In the hands of a less competent writer/director, this could have gone wrong in many ways. But John Krasinski has a clear vision and delivers a movie that recasts horror in the purest sense. This is not just about throwing random obstacles in the path of the protagonist, but turning the everyday-ness of essential existence into something life-threatening. And so, your fist finds its way into your mouth when you realise Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt), the mother and wife, is pregnant and the due date is fast approaching.
In this new way of life, the family must fall back on primitive roles – the male must go hunting-gathering, the female must keep house and hearth safe. In the silences, the tensions in the relationships is even more palpable – Regan (Millicent Simmonds), the fiery teen daughter, already frustrated with her hearing aid, rebels against the domestic role assigned to her in this new survival set up. There is no option to vent emotions – every physical and mental pain must be borne in excruciating silence. As the movie quietly explodes into the climax scenes you just don’t have time to breathe or blink or process; you can only live through it, like the Abbotts.
It’s a movie that screams in its silence; a silence that assumes a character of its own. It exhausts you because you must pay attention to every expression, every sign, every little noise. The sound engineering is brilliant; the POV shifts are shown through changes in ambient noise – dead silence when Regan is in the frame, for example. The background music is sparingly used, and when it comes on, it is unobtrusive and adds to the drama.
Emily Blunt is brilliant as usual, but for me it was Simmonds as the feisty teen who stole the show.
A friend of mine recommends watching the movie with boxing gloves on so you can beat up noisemakers. I’d say wear the gloves to protect your knuckles from being chewed out.
© Sumana Khan 2018