Silently sneaking up and appearing out of nowhere, A Quiet Place released to critical acclaim in 2018. Directed by and starring John Krasinski and co-starring his real-life and onscreen wife, Emily Blunt, the film is a testament to how well this particular Hollywood couple is able to collaborate and work together. The 90-minute horror flick went on to make a killing at the box office, grossing $341 million on a miniscule $17 million budget. This has led to a successful franchise consisting of a sequel that was released in 2021 and a prequel coming out this Summer. But with all this success for such a small and unassuming movie, does it live up to the noise or is it doomed to fizzle out into a whimper?

The film tells a simple story about a family stuck living in an apocalypse where savage aliens have overtaken Earth and kill any living creatures that make significant noise. The aliens are only able to sense their prey through sound, due to being blind. The family are hiding out on their farm, doing their best to survive day to day without making a sound. Krasinski plays the father, Blunt plays the mother, and they have a son and daughter played by Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds, respectively. Conflict arises in the story when their second son is killed by one of the aliens and the family must learn to cope with this tragedy while continuing to do their best to survive in silence. 

All the cast members give excellent performances here. John Krasinski is great at being able to say so much as his character through his usage of facial expressions and minimal dialogue. Emily Blunt gives an emotionally-moving and gut wrenching performance as a mother who genuinely wants the best for her family but is also dealing with grief and depression. Noah Jupe is an expressive and talented child actor who gives it his all and is completely believable in his role. But the best performance of all has to go to Millicent Simmonds, who plays the daughter in the film. Her being a deaf actress who plays a deaf character in a film that uses sign language with its characters and relies heavily on sound as a concept is perfect casting. She also delivers an excellent range of emotions from sadness to anger to guilt to joy in a way that is often quite rare to see in a child actor. Her deep connections and relationships that she depicts with her family are truly memorable and she without a doubt has a strong career ahead of her. The entire cast’s usage of American Sign Language (ASL) was done extremely well and tastefully, making complete sense within the context of the film and also providing representation to the ASL community in a respectful and fitting way.

From a filmmaking standpoint, the film is crafted quite competently. The shot compositions are good-looking, with some truly breathtaking cinematography at times. The editing was well-executed, with scenes that are cut together well in a way that always provides linear and clear continuity. The pacing is perfect, with each scene mattering and telling us something new about the characters. The writing is effective and smart, giving us a story that is emotionally satisfying with characters that are very easy to like and get to know. Last but not least, the sound design for the film is exquisite from beginning to end. They knew exactly when silence was necessary, when to bring in just the right amount of sound to build tension, and when to bring in the beautifully-composed score that knew when to set the proper tone. The filmmakers knew that sound would be an essential element that they had to get right in order to tie in with the central theme of the film, and it goes without saying that it takes talent to make your audience fear sound itself when watching your film. All of these elements come together to create a film that understands the golden rule of filmmaking that so many others have forgotten: show, don’t tell.

With all of this praise heaped onto the film, it will be interesting to see how the franchise continues to grow and develop over time. A prequel to this film, titled A Quiet Place: Day One is set to release at the end of June this year. All that is known about the plot can be seen in the current trailer, which depicts Earth on the first day the aliens arrived before the world went silent. The film will star Lupita Nyong’o as a woman named Sam trying to survive in New York City when the attack on humanity begins. Based on the trailer, the film seems to be much bigger in scale than the original and seems to be going for more of a disaster movie type of vibe. With this being the franchise’s first attempt to break out of the mold of what A Quiet Place can be, it will be interesting to see if this will be able to eventually branch off into something bigger. While many horror franchises have failed in the past by oversaturating their brands with endless sequels, A Quiet Place has yet to disappoint, and may in fact be able to achieve bigger and bolder things while continuing to sneak along silently.