A Quiet Place

[zico]

8/10. Sci-fi thriller, with Emily Blunt. 90 minutes.

Genuinely different film, with very little dialogue, directed in a way which really drew me into the story. The trailer looked a bit cheesy, but the film is much better than the trailer would suggest.

It's set in the near future where some Alien/Predator type scary aliens have turned up on Earth. The aliens are blind and have very sensitive hearing to locate their prey, so anyone making the slightest noise could attract an alien. The film starts from the position that almost all the world's population either dead (or possibly in hiding and keeping quiet) and is effective in quickly sketching out the basics we need to know, without showing us what happened.

The film is set around one family's struggle to survive this threat, how they adapt to the need to stay quiet, but actually mostly about their family bonds and how they manage with a radically different way of living their lives. There is a bit of standard scary-movie type hide-and-chase stuff, but for the most part, it's a film that keeps you gripped without using cheap tricks, and the film builds up a genuine uncertainty about what will happen next. Because there is so little dialogue, you need to pay attention to how the characters behave and their facial expressions to understand what's happening.

[todthedog]

Greatly enjoyed this film. Real edge of the seat stuff. Unusual and original. Well worth going to watch.

[zico]

A groundbreaking achievement for Emily Blunt, who has just become the first ever actor or actress to win Best Supporting Actress for a starring role!