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A Quiet Place

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A Quiet Place
The film poster shows a close-up of Emily Blunt in-character with her hand over her mouth.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Krasinski
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Bryan Woods
  • Scott Beck
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyCharlotte Bruus Christensen
Edited byChristopher Tellefsen
Music byMarco Beltrami
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • March 9, 2018 (2018-03-09) (SXSW)
  • April 6, 2018 (2018-04-06) (United States)
Running time
95 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
Languages
Budget$17 million

A Quiet Place is a 2018 American horror film directed by John Krasinski, who also stars in the film with Emily Blunt, his real life spouse. The screenplay was written by Krasinski, Bryan Woods, and Scott Beck based on a story by Woods and Beck. The plot follows a family of four who must live life in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound. The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 9, 2018 and has received critical acclaim. It is scheduled to be released in the United States on April 6, 2018, by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

In a dystopian alternate 2017, the world undergoes lockdown as blind monsters search for victims by sound. The few survivors of an unknown attack in New York appear as the Abbott family, who mourn the death of Beau, a victim to the monsters a year earlier.

Following several prior encounters, the monsters become aware of the family’s presence while Lee develops a sound-proof device, assuming it to be the monsters’ weakness. In spite of granting this to his daughter Regan, and insistence that Beau’s death was not her fault, tensions develop between Regan and Lee, causing her to feel isolated in the shadow of her brother Marcus.

That night, in result of her sudden birth pain and her stepping on a pin pointed from a staircase, Evelyn, despite attempts of silence, eventually succumbs to her pain, resulting in her screaming and gaining the attention of the monsters. While Lee and Marcus attempt to divert, Lee is forced to leave the children to protect his wife, who has given birth to their third son. Although she admits to her children’s safety, Evelyn demands Lee search for their kids. He discovers them at an abandoned barn house and sends them to safety. Lee sacrifices himself to divert. Regan and Marcus then escape and are left to fight the monsters with a grieving Evilyn. Regan soon discovers the strength of the sound-proof design and utilizes this weapon to defeat the monsters while Marcus tends the baby. As the other two monsters crawl near, the remaining members of the Abbot family reload and prepare for combat.

Cast

Actor Role Description
Emily Blunt Evelyn Abbott The mother of Regan and Marcus and the wife of Lee. She is pregnant with their third child at the start of the film. Krasinski describes Evelyn wanting to ensure their children "be fully-formed, fully-thinking people".[2]
John Krasinski Lee Abbott The father of Regan and Marcus and the husband of Evelyn. Krasinski described his character as a survivalist who focuses on getting his family through each day.[2]
Millicent Simmonds Regan Abbott Lee and Evelyn's deaf daughter and Marcus's sister. Krasinski said he sought a deaf actress, "... for many reasons, I didn't want a non-deaf actress pretending to be deaf. Most importunely [sic] though, because a deaf actress would help my knowledge and my understanding of the situations tenfold. I wanted someone who lives it and who could teach me about it on set."[2] Since the family communicates in American Sign Language to avoid sound, Simmonds helped teach ASL to her fellow actors.[3]
Noah Jupe Marcus Abbott The hearing son of Lee and Evelyn and Regan’s brother. Krasinski noticed Jupe in the 2016 miniseries The Night Manager and later got to see an early screening of the 2017 film Suburbicon to evaluate Jupe's performance.[2]

Crew

Production

Krasinski wrote the screenplay with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, both who had written the story. Beck and Woods grew up together in the US state of Iowa, and in college, they watched numerous silent films. By 2013, they began working on the story that would lead to the film. They used their experience growing up close to farmland as the basis for the story, also including a grain silo setting as a place considered dangerous in their upbringing. They initiated their approach with a 15-page proof of concept.[6]

In January 2016, Beck and Woods began writing A Quiet Place in earnest.[7] Krasinski read their spec script in the following July,[8] and it appealed to him with the concept of parents protecting their children, especially since he and his wife, actress Emily Blunt, had had their second child at the time.[2] Blunt encouraged him to direct the film.[8] By March 2017, Paramount bought Beck and Woods's spec script. The studio hired Krasinski to rewrite the script and to direct the film, which was his third directorial credit and his first for a major studio.[9] Blunt read Krasinski's draft and asked him if she could be cast opposite him in the film.[8] He agreed, and they were both cast in the starring roles of the film.[9]

Production took place in 2017 from May to November. Most filming took place in US state of New York in Dutchess County and Ulster County. Filmmakers spent $18 million in the region, including a purchase of 20 tons of corn which they hired local farmers to grow. Some filming took place on a soundstage in the town of Pawling in Dutchess County as well as on-location in the county's city of Beacon.[10] Outside Dutchess and Ulster counties, filming also took place on Main Street in Little Falls in Herkimer County, New York.[11] During filming, the crew avoided making noise so diagetic background sounds could be recorded; the sounds were amplified in post-production. A traditional musical score was also added to the film, which Krasinski justified for audiences to remain familiar with watching the film and not feel like being part of a "silence experiment".[12]

The film's total production budget was $17 million.[13]

Marketing

Paramount Pictures released the first trailer for A Quiet Place in November 2017.[14] It aired a 30-second commercial for the film during the US football playoff Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018.[15] Of the seven trailers that aired during the playoff, A Quiet Place and Red Sparrow aired during the pregame and had the lowest views and social conversations. A Quiet Place had 149,000 views on YouTube, 275,000 videos on Facebook, and 2,900 social conversations.[16][17] On February 12, 2018, Krasinski appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to present the full trailer for A Quiet Place.[18]

Release

A Quiet Place premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival as the opening-night film on March 9, 2018.[19] It was selected from 2,458 submissions.[20] It earned "raves" from critics, according to IndieWire.[21] Following its premiere, the film experienced social media growth to under 52 million views across multiple platforms, outpacing Get Out (2017), which had 46.9 million views.[13]

Theatrical run

Paramount Pictures will release the film in theaters in the United States and Canada on April 6, 2018.[22] The Tracking Board reported on March 14, "The stellar reviews out of SXSW, coupled with the fact that there isn't anything like it in the marketplace, should help it stand out among its bigger-budget competition."[23] Deadline Hollywood said on March 15 that it is projected to gross around $20 million in its opening weekend.[13] Variety reported on March 27 that the film "is tracking to open between" $16 million and $30 million.[24]

BoxOffice initially estimated on February 9, 2018 that A Quiet Place would gross $17 million in its opening weekend and that it would gross a total of $60 million in the United States.[25] By March 30, it increased its estimate to an opening weekend gross of $27.5 million and a US total gross of $85 million.[26] The magazine said the film's trailer was well-received online and that it appeared frequently in previews for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. BoxOffice wrote, "The horror genre has also shown a knack for over-performing against expectations at the box office in recent years, setting this release up for potential success." It said A Quiet Place would have to compete against another horror film, Truth or Dare, which would be released the following weekend.[25] The magazine's staff drew "very favorable" comparisons between A Quiet Place and the 2016 films 10 Cloverfield Lane and Don't Breathe.[27]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 54 reviews, and a rating average of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A Quiet Place artfully plays on elemental fears with a ruthlessly intelligent creature feature that's as original as it is scary—and establishes director John Krasinski as a rising talent."[28] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[29]

Variety's Owen Gleiberman said, "A Quiet Place is a tautly original genre-bending exercise, technically sleek and accomplished, with some vivid, scary moments, though it's a little too in love with the stoned logic of its own premise."[30] The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore described the film as "a terrifying thriller with a surprisingly warm heart" and said, "You might have to go back to Jeff Nichols' 2011 Take Shelter to find a film that has used the fantastic this well to convey the combination of fear and responsibility a good parent feels."[31]

Social commentary

John Krasinski, who did not grow up with horror films, said that prior films of the genre such as Don't Breathe (2016) and Get Out (2017) that had societal commentary were part of his research when preparing for A Quiet Place. In addition to considering his film a metaphor for parenthood, he compared the premise to the US politics in 2018, "I think in our political situation, that's what's going on now: You can close your eyes and stick your head in the sand, or you can try to participate in whatever's going on." He cited Jaws (1975) as an influence with how the protagonist cop moved from New York to an island to avoid scary situations and was forced to encounter one in his new location with shark attacks.[32]

Matthew Monagle of Film School Rejects said A Quiet Place seemed to be "the early frontrunner for the sparsely intellectual horror movie of the year" like previous horror films The Babadook (2014) and The Witch (2015). Monagle said Krasinski, who had directed two previous films, was "making an unusual pivot into a genre typically reserved for newcomers" and considered it to be part of a movement toward, rather than away from, horror films with such films layering "in storytelling, and character beats not typically found in a horror movie".[33]

See also

Films with little or no dialogue

The British Film Institute listed the following noteworthy films with little or no dialogue:[34]

References

  1. ^ a b c "A Quiet Place | SXSW 2018 Schedule". schedule.sxsw.com. South by Southwest. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e Fowler, Matt (January 30, 2018). "A Quiet Place: John Krasinski Discusses Directing Silent Terror, Plus Exclusive Photo Gallery". IGN. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  3. ^ Squires, John (March 14, 2018). "John Krasinski on the Importance of Casting Deaf Actress Millicent Simmonds in 'A Quiet Place'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  4. ^ Staff (December 18, 2017). "Marco Beltrami to Score John Krasinski's 'A Quiet Place'". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  5. ^ Staff. "NFTS Grad & 'Fences' DoP Charlotte Bruus Christensen Inspires Cinematography Students". nfts.co.uk. National Film and Television School. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  6. ^ Mulcahey, Matt (March 12, 2018). "'How Do You Communicate Backstory, Motivation and Theme Without Dialogue?' A Quiet Place Screenwriters Bryan Woods and Scott Beck at SXSW 2018". Filmmaker. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  7. ^ Turner, Jonathan (March 21, 2017). "Q-C filmmakers sell screenplay to Paramount". The Dispatch / The Rock Island Argus. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Miller, Julie (February 2018). "Emily Blunt: World, Meet Your New Mary Poppins". Retrieved January 19, 2018. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  9. ^ a b Kroll, Justin (March 15, 2017). "John Krasinski to Write, Direct and Star With Emily Blunt in 'Quiet' Thriller". Variety. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  10. ^ Barry, John W. (November 17, 2017). "Krasinski's 'A Quiet Place' leaves sweeping impact on Dutchess and Ulster". Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  11. ^ Sorrell-White, Stephanie (October 30, 2017). "'A Quiet Place' transforms Little Falls". Times Telegram. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  12. ^ Prudom, Laura (March 15, 2018). "A Quiet Place: John Krasinski and Emily Blunt on the Challenges of Making an Almost Silent Movie". IGN. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  13. ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 15, 2018). "'A Quiet Place' Gets Loud On Social Media Post SXSW Premiere". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  14. ^ McNary, Dave (November 16, 2017). "Emily Blunt, John Krasinski Stay Silent to Survive in Creepy 'A Quiet Place' Trailer". Variety. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  15. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 27, 2018). "Super Bowl Movie Trailers: Netflix's 'Cloverfield' Sequel To Run Spot? 'Jurassic World', 'Mission: Impossible' & More To Air". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  16. ^ McClintock, Pamela (February 5, 2018). "Super Bowl Movie Ads: 'Avengers: Infinity War' Is Big Winner". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  17. ^ Purcell, Carey (February 5, 2018). "'Avengers' and 'Jurassic World' Trailers Go Head To Head At The Super Bowl". Forbes. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  18. ^ Holub, Christian (February 12, 2018). "New A Quiet Place trailer sheds light on film's dystopian setting". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  19. ^ Derschowitz, Jessica (January 31, 2018). "John Krasinski and Emily Blunt supernatural thriller A Quiet Place to open SXSW Film Festival". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  20. ^ Hancock, Amanda (February 7, 2018). "Bettendorf natives' screenplay, 'A Quiet Place,' will premiere opening night of SXSW". Quad-City Times. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  21. ^ Nordine, Michael (March 10, 2018). "'A Quiet Place' Review Roundup: John Krasinski's SXSW Thriller Is Leaving Critics Speechless". IndieWire. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  22. ^ Lee, Ashley (November 16, 2017). "'A Quiet Place' Teaser Previews Emily Blunt in John Krasinski's Thriller". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  23. ^ Sneider, Jeff (March 14, 2018). "SXSW Highlights: Ready Player One Delivers, A Quiet Place Surprises and Blockers Scores". The Tracking Board. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  24. ^ Lang, Brent; Rubin, Rebecca (March 27, 2018). "'Blockers,' 'A Quiet Place' Bet SXSW Buzz Equals Big Box Office". Variety. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  25. ^ a b Staff (February 9, 2018). "Long Range Tracking: 'Blockers' & 'A Quiet Place' Could Mark Positive Start to April Box Office". BoxOffice. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  26. ^ Robbins, Shawn (March 30, 2018). "Long Range Tracking: 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'". BoxOffice. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  27. ^ Staff (March 16, 2018). "Long Range Tracking: 'Life of the Party' & 'Breaking In'; 'A Quiet Place' & 'Ready Player One' Updates". BoxOffice. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  28. ^ "A Quiet Place (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  29. ^ "A Quiet Place Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  30. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (March 9, 2018). "SXSW Film Review: 'A Quiet Place'". Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  31. ^ DeFore, John (March 9, 2018). "'A Quiet Place': Film Review | SXSW 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  32. ^ Manning, Sean (March 1, 2018). "The Playboy Interview: John Krasinski is Breaking Into Horror, and the World is Watching". Playboy. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  33. ^ Monagle, Matthew (March 6, 2018). "Does 'A Quiet Place' Prove Filmmakers Are Moving Towards, Not Away From, the Horror Genre?". Film School Rejects. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  34. ^ Singer, Leigh (November 23, 2016). "10 great films with little or no dialogue". bfi.org.uk. British Film Institute. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
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