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FÖRENINGEN FILM I MALMÖ PRESENTS
A QUIET PLACE
2018
90min
Dir. John Krasinski
DRAMA HORROR MYSTERY
Not only is the how and why of this apocalypse unlike anything we’ve cinematically experienced before, so is the gentleness and even homeyness with which it plays out.
It’s hardly a “nice” end of the world, obviously, but humanity has been literally unable to descend into a Mad Max–style every-man-for-himself dystopia: that would be too noisy. Even something that would be considered a detriment in other apocalypses is a benefit here, a contributor toward survival instead of the opposite: the daughter of the family is deaf (as actress Simmonds actually is), which is probably why they all know the sign language that has given them an edge over other people who may not have been able to communicate with one another as effectively. (Disability is literally ability here. Maybe even a superpower.) This is a movie about the absolute essentialness of working together to survive, of the bonds of family as life-giving. It’s difficult even to argue much when you can’t shout at one another. Sure, the daughter is getting moody with approaching adolescence, and they’re all struggling with the obvious grief of their situation, of humanity’s situation. But there are hints of other survivors: signal bonfires light up the landscape around this family’s farm in the evenings, a silent “hello, we’re still here” from afar. All hope has not yet been lost.
On the other hand, Kraskinski finds unexpected dread in that hope, too: By Day 472, Mom is quite heavily pregnant. How is she going to give birth without making any noise? How are they going to stop a newborn from wailing out loud constantly? How many new challenges does survival demand?
A Quiet Place is often an almost unbearably tense film. It is frequently excruciating in its terror. I am only very rarely able to say that about movies that are meant to frighten us. This one scared the hell out of me. That is so wonderfully refreshing.