Don’t move. Don’t even make a sound. If you do, they will hunt you and ask you to leave the theater. That is how quiet it is while watching the latest horror movie, A Quiet Place.
A Quiet Place is a PG-13 film that focuses on a family’s struggle to survive after an alien invasion. So far it has received nothing but high praise, and critics are saying that this movie is revolutionizing the horror genre because of the way it impacts audience members directly. It is so highly rated that on the famous critic’s website Rotten Tomatoes, top critics list it as 100 percent with an audience score of 86 percent.
The movie’s set, character development, and unique display of talent has entranced audiences across the nation.
There weren’t any cliché horror movie gimmicks, but genuine and original effects were used instead. Although I have heard some movie goers say there wasn’t enough information about the invasion that is not what the movie is about.
The invasion doesn’t matter, it already occurred four months prior to the start of the film. The movie is about family and how loss, pain, love and fear impacts families after a traumatic event.
The movie only has six actors total, four of which are the main cast. Over 80 percent of the movie has no vocal dialog, instead it is done with American Sign Language (ASL). The movie embraces the silence and only uses music to emphasize certain moments, specifically during scenes of immediate danger. The movie uses the five senses in a very impactful way. But the senses are not the only thing being impacted. This movie is also impacting the deaf community and is inspiring hundreds of deaf people to reach for the stars.
The story focuses on the Abbott family, with real life power couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski acting as Lee and Evelyn Abbott.
One of their children, Reagan, is deaf and Krasinski pushed for her to be played by a deaf actress, which is how they came to cast Millicent Simmonds. Now, a deaf actress playing the role of a deaf character isn’t that big of deal, right? Actually, filmmakers, especially in mainstream Hollywood, tend to stray away from bringing in actors who have some sort of disability. In many movies disabled characters are often played by actors who are not disabled. The 2017 Oscar winner, The Shape of Water, stars Sally Hawkins playing the film’s mute protagonist, Elisa. However, Hawkins is not really mute and has to learn sign language for the part. Even with the great performance by Hawkins, some critics wonder if a mute actress would have been just as good, if not better. According to the film website Indiewire, 59 non-disabled actors have earned Oscar nominations for playing disabled characters. In fact, the last deaf actress to win an Oscar award was Marlee Matlin in 1987 for her role in Children of a Lesser God. To this day she is still the only deaf—or disabled actor to ever win an Oscar for a role (madison.com). According to interviews with Simmonds, she believes that A Quiet place will be a great way to show the deaf community and the world that you can do anything, no matter the obstacles you face. She hopes that a quiet place will inspire directors and other screenwriters to include more deaf talent and be more creative in the way they use deaf talent and other disabled actors.
“What I hope is that I can show (my community) you can do anything. Not only become an actor, but a writer, a teacher, a pilot, anything you want to do is possible. Just work hard, and people will recognize that,” Simmonds said in an interview with NowThis Entertainment.
I don’t scare easily in movies, but this movie had even me jumping with fright. I would personally rate this movie a 10/10 and I definitely will be buying it later. Even if you aren’t a horror movie fan, I would recommend seeing this movie.
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