I was at a party this weekend with a Black friend of mine where 95% of the people who were there just so happened to be Caucasian. And as my friend and I started talking and laughing, I felt so sorry for everyone else who was in attendance because there was no way in hell they could even hear themselves think, let alone carry on an actual conversation. Why are we so loud, you ask? Is it because we are so happy that we can freely sing and talk without having to worry about being cracked with a whip? Or is it just a natural reflex to let everyone know our whereabouts just in case a cop decides to get in some target practice before deer hunting season rolls arounds?
Who knows but what I do know is that we wouldn’t last two seconds in a horror film simply because we’d be the first person the killer finds. I used to get angry at the fact that Black people always died in horror flicks; I used to think it was just the filmmakers being racist, but after A Quiet Place came out, I was finally awaken to the truth; we are just too damn loud. If we could just learn to use our inside voices every now and then, we might actually stand a chance. Stay woke son, stay woke!
Well thankfully they spare us the gruesome death scenes of any minorities in this film but that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s short on terror. In A Quiet Place, The Office’s John Krasinski introduces us to a post-apocalyptic world where the only way you can survive is if you don’t make any noticeable sounds. There are apparently creatures nearby who can only detect sound and the second they do, they appear from seemingly nowhere and immediately pounce on and kill their prey. So if you snore or get caught watching the wrong porn flick, it’s a wrap for you.
Now while there does appear to be other survivors in this story, the filmmakers decide to put their attention solely on Krasinski and Emily Blunt’s family. And despite losing a young child to one of these creatures and having to deal with the grief and self-imposed blame that comes along with that, the couple decides to have another baby to go along with the two they currently have in an attempt to try and lead a somewhat normal life. Naturally this decision leads to some rather intense moments in the movie but more on that in a second.
What’s so cool and unique about this film is the fact that the family doesn’t do anything silly like whisper quietly to one another but they instead actually utilize sign language to communicate. Which not only means you’re reading subtitles for the majority of the film but it also means you’re experiencing the creepy silence along with them. So the second you hear any sound or simply suspect that a sound could be created with a footstep or a baby contraction, you’re freaking out because you know it’s just a matter of time before the creatures, or whatever they are, show up.
And that’s yet another thing I loved about this film, not everything was spelled out for you. As the plot develops, you not only learn more about the family and what actually happened to society but you also see more of and learn more about the beings that are wreaking havoc on this farm. To a certain extent it’s a bit predictable but that’s to be expected, it’s a horror film. It was just refreshing to see the story stray from most of the typical clichés that have plagued this genre for decades.
Now while I still do hate on Krasinski for stealing Emily Blunt from me, I do have to give him credit for making a decent film. And he certainly did owe us after that awful football movie he made with George Clooney. Do yourself a favor and go check out A Quiet Place as I give it a rating of very FRESH!
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