MANILA, Philippines — Paramount Pictures’ “A Quiet Place,” which stars Emily Blunt alongside her husband and director of the film John Krasinski, is arguably one of the most terrifying and nerve-shredding movies to hit local cinemas this summer.
The film is about a resourceful family of four who have so far survived the onslaught of predators that have hunted humanity to the brink of extinction. The movie leaves only small clues and a lot of room for imagination to figure out what is really happening or how the whole thing came to a post-apocalyptic scenario. The plot is a stroke of genius as it starts with complete silence, with sign language among the characters as their only form of communication — and only way for survival.
The movie initiates a climactic scene where the Abbott family hurriedly moves to a new location. Shrouded in fear, the husband and wife signal their children to be extra cautious not to make any sound. At this point, you know that they are trying to hide from something unimaginable.
As the family traverses an uninhabited trail, everything was wrapped in silence that you could hear a pin drop. The only audible sound was light breathing, the eerie gasp of wind, and the strange movements that seem to emanate from somewhere close.
Just as you thought nothing out of the ordinary will happen, the unexpected comes. As seen on one of the movie’s trailers, the youngest of the Abbott family — who is about five or six years old — suddenly makes a sound with his toy airplane, and the next thing you know is that the father runs toward his son to save him from the ominous creature that is about to unfold itself. If you are watching this in the big screen, you are most likely at the edge of your seat, face covered, and trying not to scream.
What starts out as: “Oh, hey it’s a family-oriented movie with three kids, so no extreme violence will happen,” quickly escalates into an intense and horrifying prelude that will leave you speechless.
The origin of these insect-looking monsters is unknown, but we suspect they are either extraterrestrial or a by-product of a failed experiment perpetrated by the government, but one thing we know: they stalk and hunt by sound. Therefore, survival depends on silence.
Throughout the course of the film, you will be introduced to four characters, which, regardless of their miniscule size, have provided so much flavor. The two older kids, Marcus Abbott (played by British-born rising star Noah Jupe), and Regan Abbott (played by hearing-impaired child actor Millicent Simmonds) were the only ones who seem to hold the family from completely breaking apart.
Their mom Evelyn Abbott (played by Blunt) was trying to make things normal for her family despite the horrifying circumstance they are all in. Meanwhile, their dad Lee Abbott (played by Krasinski) is blaming himself. Unknown to him though, his daughter Regan believes that she is at fault, too. This is where the family tension comes in; the complexities of human emotions and how they were all creatively entangled to present a narrative that is almost too relatable to ignore. Without the dark side of it, the story sheds light to a picture of a normal family that is trying to deal with the pain of losing a loved one, and how a parent’s love will fight death and fear at the very last breath.
The film will drop us midway to a global catastrophe where only few people have survived; quietly hiding to live through the next day. As the first chapter sets in on day 89, the film poses a great question: what are they? Where did they come from? The film neatly sidesteps the question of how something that looks unintelligent, and is nothing but all ears and appetite, would have a cunning ability to invade the planet and destroy every remaining civilization?
In terms of prosthetics and design quality, Krasinski and his team have gone all out on slavering jaws and huge alien-like eardrums, which brings forth a theory, are the monsters from another dimension? Who knows, but they do look like the Demogorgons of “Stranger Things.”
Much to everyone’s dismay—even with bold take on modern suspense-thriller genre—the movie had few unanswered questions such as: Why have they not attempted to move somewhere safer? How were they able to build an entire line of surveillance facility to have 24/7 security? With the available resources around them, didn’t it occur to them to make their place sound-proof?
One scene showed they plan a season to hunt for food like fishing in a lake, but isn’t that dangerous with all these flesh-eating and sound-sensitive creatures lurking around? Our best guess: Krasinski is aware of all these yet he wanted to make it as vague—and somehow mysterious—as possible. After all, modern Armageddon-themed movies are meant to blow your mind.
Overall, the movie is great and has so much potential to be a blockbuster hit. Above all, it has the ingredients it needs: great storyline, well-played characters, cinematography, unique story-telling through visual effects, plus, you have all these crazy moments of trying to decipher what is going to happen next.
To some it may be a little disappointing that the climax will end abruptly without any explanation, but it is probably for the best. Besides, it is like an open-ended denouement that will surely pave the way for a sequel.
“A Quiet Place” is a film that preys on the nerves every bit as efficient as the diabolic creatures that stalk and attack anything that dares make a sound. A superb sequence in a grain silo is chokingly taut. The best part where all the spine-tingling scenes will commence is the moment the entire family tip-toes around the inauspicious fact of Evelyn’s pregnancy: a realization that silence is a precursor to a paralyzing paranoia.
The surprise hit that gave birth to many sequels
Due to the roaring success of “A Quiet Place,” which costs only $17 million to produce but has earned over $135 million from North America alone in just three weeks, the film’s studio, Paramount Pictures, has announced not only a sequel to the John Krasinski-directed thriller, but also sequels to other Paramount box-office hits like “Mission: Impossible,” "Cloverfield," "Star Trek,” "Terminator," “World War Z,” and even "Spongebob.”
According to Columbia Pictures, the film's local distributor, “A Quiet Place” climbed up to the No. 1 spot in Philippine box-office for its 2nd week of release, earning more than its opening weekend. For the period, April 18-22, the suspense thriller about a family trying to survive in a world with aliens that hunt based on sound, grossed a thunderous P79.5 million, almost doubling-up its opening weekend gross of P41.7 million, a rare feat, said Columbia, that only happens because of world of mouth and repeat viewings.
Current total earnings for the Emily Blunt-John Krasinski team-up now total at a whopping P144.9 million, becoming the 9th biggest grossing horror film of all-time and 2nd biggest thriller in Paramount Pictures' history, after “World War Z.”