‘A Quiet Place’ redefines the horror movie genre

In the horror film, “A Quiet Place,” there is no talking, no music — no sound whatsoever. The key to survival is silence. Directed by John Krasinski, “A Quiet Place” gives audiences a terrifying cinema experience filled with suspense, thrills and a plot that will make you want to scream.

“A Quiet Place” redefines the horror genre. Rather than relying on jump scares and eerie music, the smallest noise offers the biggest scare and drives the movie’s plot. For a movie about silence, this movie is making a great deal of noise in the cinema world. After its release on April 6, “A Quiet Place” earned a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Krasinski plays Lee Abbot the husband of Emily Blunt’s character, Evelyn Abbot. The two parents are forced to live in silence as they try to raise and protect their children from deadly, blind creatures who hunt you if they hear you.

The film opens with the family rummaging through an abandoned convenience store. Filled with abandoned toys, unopened medicine and a scarce food supply, the family rummages through the store and collects goods to take back to their farmhouse. While walking back on a sand-covered path, the Abbot’s youngest son, Beau, places batteries in a rocket that immediately starts to make automated sounds and reveals the Abbot’s location.

Krasinski attempts to run to his son in order to take the batteries out of the device, but he fails to make it in time. A creature flashes across the screen and kills the child in a quick but vicious attack while the rest of the family agonizes in silence.

Having not seen any previews prior to seeing this movie, I was extremely confused as to why nobody was supposed to make noise, and the film does a great job at leaving viewers in the dark when it comes to the plot’s backstory.

The first 10 minutes are confusing as the family gathers supplies in silence. It is not until Beau is murdered that the plot starts to make sense.

Beau’s death adds to the plot and creates a backstory, but I could not help but wonder why the family thought it was a good idea to leave their youngest member at the back of the line without any supervision or protection, especially when the risk of death was so high. Little kids make noise, and I feel like a little more supervision would have helped the Abbots avoid this.

The movie jumps ahead to the Abbot’s farm. Lined with lights, soundproofed and rigged with fireworks, their house seems like the perfect place to be during a time of crisis, but the film’s events take a turn for the worst as the plot progresses.

Krasinski appears to be the perfect father. He does everything he can to protect his family — teaching his son, Marcus, how to catch and hunt for food and crafting hearing aids for his deaf daughter, Reagan. The children have toys, their mother teaches them lessons they would have learned in school and they entertain themselves at night by covering their bedroom walls in newspaper to add insulation and soundproofing to their farmhouse bunker.

In a world consumed by silence and fear, the Abbots seem to be living a slightly modified American Dream.

However, in a world where silence is key, a mother in labor and crying newborn are the most lethal and noisy entities to have.

After its slow start, the movie crams all the action into ten minutes. Lee and Marcus go on a teaching expedition, but Reagan, consumed with guilt over the death of her brother, angerley runs away from home to visit Beau’s grave.

Evelyn is now stranded alone at home, so naturally, she goes into labor as a creature invades their farm as a result of a scream she made after stepping on a nail while doing laundry.

I never considered being able to scream during childbirth a luxury until I watched Evelyn deliver her baby in silence while fearing for her and her child’s lives.

Events begin to speed up, Lee reunites with his wife and newborn son; however, the other two Abbot children are lost and trapped in a silo, only to be saved by the signals echoing from Reagan’s hearing aid.

Once Lee reunites with his children, he makes one final effort to protect them before being killed by one of the creatures.

Amidst the violent killings and suspense, familial love, forgiveness and the importance of innovation are displayed throughout the film.

“A Quiet Place” has a unique storyline — undeveloped as its backstory may be — it had a lot of potential. While I think Krasinski made the choice to kill some of the wrong characters, the movie forces you to think about the power of sound, voice and communication.

Overall, the film delivers a decent and creative story filled with suspense, action and a wide variety of themes, but the ending is a flop. I had high expectations only to be left with a horror movie that ends with a whisper not with a scream.