Review of A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski

In the summer of 2024, I had a life changing opportunity to be fully funded to study and live in South Korea for two months. During the first two weeks of the program, we were in a hotel in Busan, and half of us had roommates while the other half didn’t. I felt so well rested when I was in this hotel, but after those two weeks were up, we switched roles and moved into the Pusan National University dorms.

I had a roommate, who I love and cherish. She’s great! But in the beginning, as someone who hasn’t been in a dorm in five years, I was having an adjustment period. While I was in the hotel I would unwind by watching television and Netflix, and in the room I felt kind of weird about doing it.

That said, one day I really wanted to unwind, so I went to the local PC Bang with some friends. For those of you who are unaware of this concept, it’s basically paying $2.50 USD to have two hours of access to a computer room in Korea. They have food, which is solid and cheap, and there are students everywhere cussing people out while playing online games.

What did I do in here? I put my headphones on and watched Netflix. The screens were huge, so it made it perfect for watching movies. And this was how I ended up watching A Quiet Place.

Let’s get into the review, shall we?

In a world where people can no longer make sounds due to aliens, a family tries to survive.

The premise behind this movie is that in a period prior to the events of the movie, aliens have invaded earth. These aliens cannot see, so they rely on their hearing to kill off the humans. By the time this film begins, most of the humans have been killed, leaving one family, the Abbotts, to try and live a life in silence on their farm.

The Abbott family consists of Evelyn and Lee, the parents, a deaf daughter named Regan, and two sons named Beau and Marcus. An inciting incident occurs early on in the film: the family goes into a town to stock up on what they need, and Beau finds a toy space shuttle.

However, it makes noise when it is turned on, so Lee forces him to leave it behind. Regan gives it back to him, and Beau swipes the batteries before anyone notices. It’s when they’re walking back home that he turns the toy on and the family is horrified to watch Beau die because of a nearby alien.

This crushes Regan, who thinks it’s her fault, and no one except her brother realizes how sad she is about it. A year passes, and Evelyn is pregnant again. While the family is out fishing, and Regan visiting her brother’s grave, Evelyn’s water breaks and she goes into labor.

She ventures towards the basement in pain, but steps on a nail in the process, making a photo frame fall to the floor and making noise. An alien hears this and comes into the home, and Evelyn tries to go into the basement while keeping in her sounds of pain.

The alien comes into the basement, but she escapes with an egg timer being rigged, and Marcus and Lee come home and lure the angel out of their home. She gives birth as Regan comes home from the grave. But when the baby gives off a cry, another alien comes into the barn they started hiding in.

The alien doesn’t find them, but it breaks a water pipe. Evelyn wakes up with the flooding and is forced to hide behind the cascading water to hide the sound of her with the baby. The two older siblings are lighting a fire to let other farms know, but Marcus slips into a silo, the sound attracting the alien.

Regan’s in-ear implants make a shrieking noise, which is what saves them. The alien broke a hole as it fled, allowing Marcus to get out. They reunite with their father, but he is injured, and Marcus screams when that happens. Lee then sacrifices himself after telling them he loves them, and the kids return back to the home.

With Evelyn, they go into the basement, but the alien follows them. Regan then puts the implant on a microphone, which forces the alien to expose a weakness: a little bit of tissue underneath its armor plating. Evelyn shoots it there, killing the alien, but the noise attracts even more angels.

The movie ends with the family preparing to defend themselves from the horde approaching.

Overall Thoughts

I thought this was a solid movie overall. I love silent movies from the early 1900s, so I wasn’t bothered by the fact there wasn’t really any talking—in fact, I think we need more silent movies in general nowadays.

I’ll check out the sequel and prequel of the movie eventually, but also something to note is that you have to show some talent as an actor if you have to not use your voice. That’s why a lot of silent film actors couldn’t transfer into the talkie era, or vice versa. You have to portray emotion in a very specific way.

All in all, I say watch this if you haven’t already. It was an interesting story to watch this in a PC Bang too, and I’ll be writing about the other movie I watched in there soon!

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