Poster image courtesy of IMDb. #aquietplace
A Quiet Place (2018), directed by John Krasinski; starring Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe.
Caution: Spoilers galore!
This film was a monster hit last spring, and in many ways, it deserves all of the critical and box office accolades that it received. A Quiet Place features an innovative premise, strong performances from the two adult leads, and a number of horror/action set pieces that are genuinely terrifying.
That said, it has a few significant flaws that keep it from being a truly great horror film (or even a significantly good one.)
The story set-up is great: there’s been an invasion of relentless alients who hunt and kill humans--or anything that makes a noise, such as an unfortunate raccoon who squeaks too loudly and becomes a bloody pile of mashed raccoon-puree. The aliens cannot see, but they can hunt with pinpoint accuracy due to their super-sensitive hearing abilities.
Those people who've survived the alien apocalypse have learned to remain deadly silent at all times to keep the creatures at bay. Even a dropped plate can result in an instant, deadly attack. Enter the Abbot family, a couple named Lee and Evelyn (played by Krasinski and Blunt), and their three children: Regan, Marcus and little Beau.
Their eldest child, the teen-aged Regan (Millicent Simmonds) has been deaf and mute from birth, an advantage for the Abbotts, as the family was already accustomed to communicating in sign language before the alien invasion.
They live in a remote farmhouse on a corn farm, which they’ve modified as much as possible to guard against the aliens and minimize sound at all times. Trails to the house are covered with sand, the family goes barefoot everywhere, and they eat without plates or utensils to minimize the possibility of dropping them.
They maintain a soundproof room in the basement. where Dad spends hours making and repairing things they need, even creating a home-made hearing aid for Regan. He also maintains an internet connection with the outside world and an extensive closed circuit monitoring system to help warn the family of the monsters' movements. Lee has also erected a silent warning system consisting of light bulbs strung across their land, which can flash bright red so that family members who are out and about can be warned of any danger at home. All of which is very cool, believable and carefully thought out by the scriptwriters.
Girl With an Attitude.
Things seem to be going okay for the Abbotts despite their limited lifestyle, but they are unfortunately stuck with one enormous liability: their teenage daughter, Regan.
Let me just put this out there without pussyfooting around: Regan is the biggest brat portrayed on film since that other Regan was possessed by Pazuzzu the Demon in The Exorcist. And all things considered, I would much rather prefer to live with that other Regan--Pazuzzu included--than with the one in A Quiet Place.
Every single major misfortune that befalls the Abbott family is caused by Regan-the-Brat and her inability to obey her parents, even when she knows that transgressing the rules could result in instant, brutal death. She gets her youngest brother Beau killed off in the first five minutes (sorry for the spoiler, but I did warn you.) She almost gets her remaining brother Marcus killed too, after pouting and arguing with him while they are stuck on top of a grain silo, hiding out from the monsters. (To be fair the grain silo argument sets up one of the best action/horror sequences in the film, but nevertheless, I as a viewer couldn't stop thinking that it wouldn't have happened if Pouty Regan wasn't such a spoiled, headstrong, selfish brat.)
She also disobeys Dad (again) and leaves her heavily pregnant mother to give birth alone while the aliens are attacking the house, just so that Thyphoid Regan can leave a commemorative toy at the spot where she got her little brother killed.
Returning home, she gets pursued by a monster and ends up causing her dad to sacrifice himself to save her and Marcus from the aliens while they are trapped in a truck (a clever homage to Jurassic Park).
At the end, bratty Regan does redeem herself by figuring out the absurdly simple method for weakening the creatures so they can be killed (shades of the M. Night Shyamalan movie Signs). But by that time, I hated her so much that this redeeming act wasn't nearly enough. So she saved what was left of her family after getting almost half of them killed off? A great, humongous BFD to that one.
I don’t know why Krasinski would foist such an unattractive protagonist on his viewers and therefore ruin what otherwise would have been an absolutely awesome film. At least give her one sympathetic characteristic, but no, there are none. Spoiled brat Regan can’t even be told to summon her father to dinner without making a federal case out of it. Meanwhile, Dad acts like Cliff Huxtable the whole time, patiently explaining and reasoning with her--a total lost cause.
When he did that, I just wanted to shout at the screen: "Dude, buy a clue. Just slap the shit out of her and tie her securely to a post in the soundproof basement. Your life depends on it!" Sadly, his life did depend on it.
I'm sure that Millicent Simmonds is a perfectly nice young lady in real life, but she unfortunately has a face that is made for pouting and smirking. I hope she gets a role in the future that lets her play a much more sympathetic character than spoiled little bitch-ass Regan.
Getting back to the film: alas, my hatred for Regan completely destroyed my ability to appreciate this film. If you have a high tolerance for unattractive protagonists, give it a go. For myself, it's not something I would want to watch again, although it has many flashes of brilliance. A sequel is due next year, but I'm not sure I can take much more of Regan without having a full-on mental breakdown.
