A lot can be said about the current state of blockbuster films: they have massive budgets, focus heavily on appeal and hold simplistic narratives to maximise the potential viewing audience; although, occasionally, we're treated to the odd film that focuses on something unique, something that feels more true to the world of film and cinema. A Quiet Place is one of such films.
With the film diving quickly into its setting, A Quiet Place establishes itself through its visuals: an end-of-the-world setting, near-future, and a small family ravaging for supplies in an already-looted grocery store. Rather quickly, the film sets up its strange alien-like creatures and establishes the threat, alongside the reason as to why the characters must use sign language to communicate: sound draws their attention almost immediately.
That said, there's the odd pieces of the narrative that support dialogue, although those snippets are rarely too meaningful, and it feels nicely coordinated within the film to ensure it never really feels intrusive or distracting from the overall events, which themselves aren't pushed too much. In fact, the film feels rather lacklustre in a narrative sense; very little is told about the family, which actually is a rather enjoyable experience, given we never needed to know more than the fact that they have survived this long. It adds to the mystery of the world, and allows us to slowly piece the broader picture together ourselves.
With that narrative structure, A Quiet Place sticks to a rather emotional turn of events: a pregnancy in a world where the slightest of sounds will result in death, our most fundamental means behind our existence. That said, the film does hold a few flaws that you're bound to pick up on throughout; just tiny plot flaws that exist because of the way the story is told. Nothing that really ruins the experience overall.
A Quiet Place is a film that has you wanting much more, and not just from the characters within it, the world itself is obscure, hidden, and certainly interesting. It's a film that you'd like to see take the time to develop itself in the form of a television series, but also one that has you wanting the opposite to fully appreciate those obscurities, those hidden pieces of the universe it chose to keep away from us.
