by Daniel Mohr
3/5
Set in a world where most of humanity has been wiped out by monsters who hunt whatever makes a sound, A Quiet Place tells the story of a family trying to survive without making any noise, as a single broken plate could lead to a fatal disaster.
This movie is no ordinary monster film: the post apocalyptic set remains secondary to the main themes of the importance of family and the lengths one is willing to go to in order to protect it. As a result, the film feels somewhat different from other horror movies, since it spends time exploring its characters and their relationships in more depth. Yet, A Quiet Place is undeniably a horror, and to that a horror done right: with very few lines of dialogue, the story is told mostly through visuals, gradually building up a dense atmosphere without relying on too many jump scares. The only major deficit of the movie is the absence of any clear rules that would determine which sounds are loud enough to trigger the monsters and which are not.
Although full of scary monsters and some clichés of the genre, A Quiet Place stands out as a horror film because of its likeable characters, heartfelt story and its core themes. While it is beautiful in the way it looks and sounds, it remains a terrifying film.
