Whispers of Apocalypse: A Quiet Place Review

Five years down the line, and this film lives rent-free in my mind as one of the most thrilling and truly entertaining films I have watched. Three years later, in 2021, the producers would go on to release a sequel that would do very well for itself, regardless of the bar the first film had set.

In the same year as the release of the first film, A Quiet Place I, Birdbox was released. I draw parallels between both of them as they both share similar concepts regarding a forced deprivation of human senses due to an apocalyse that threatened the continuity of the human race. Both films, although vastly different in storylines, trended in that year for the aforementioned reason.

When an asteroid crashes on Earth, there is an invasion of sightless extraterrestial creatures that have hyper-sensitive hearing and indestructible armoured skin. They begin attacking anything that makes any sound and then annihilate most of the human and animal populations.

The Abbott family finds a place far away from town to live in absolute silence. Fortunately for them, they had already learned sign language for their deaf daughter. Sign language became their new form of communication.

The family experiences grief in their bid to survive, and then they go on to live and stay off the radar of the aliens. Faced with challenges in going about their everyday lives and life-threatening situations, they navigate their lives to survive.

Apocalypse films need to have peculiar storylines to be truly enjoyed. If an idea or concept has been used before and isn't then built upon for something interestingly unique, it is likely to not deliver. And since I had never heard of such a story before about not being able to make sound or risk being killed by aliens, the trailer for the film piqued my interest.

Like most films of this genre, A Quiet Place starts like the regular "normal day, and then something extraordinary happens." It was all sudden when the real thrills started. One would think it would be about fighting the monsters in the film, but there was more depth to it than just that.

The story, intriguingly woven together, portrays certain elements that keep one invested in the film as it continues. The definition of survival is expounded profoundly in this film. Despite having a runtime of 1 hour and 30 minutes, it felt as though I had spent hours and hours watching the film. It was that deep and thrilling for me.

For most of the film, I was kept on edge, wondering just what would happen next and how the main characters would survive. I would often sympathise with their experiences with hardship doing regular things, so much so that I got attached to certain characters, and their fate in the film mattered to me.

Films with such fascinating storylines tend to maintain good energy through most of the film, but some of them crash land with terrible endings. The ending given to this film made me appreciate its writers even more. I am not sure that there could have been any better way to provide a beginning closure that was even apt enough to serve as the beginning of a sequel.

The film focuses on the family as the main and only characters. What that implies is that there was much focus on each one of them throughout the film. Any underperformance by the actors would steer the film in the wrong direction. The actors in this film, however, were just superb at their jobs.

It's the duty of film actors to bring the film to life and paint the best picture of the film for the audience. And to me, the actors in A Quiet Place deserve awards for their incredible performances.

For anyone looking for something worthwhile to pass time with and yet be truly entertained with thrills and intrigues, they might consider this film. As much as it has been many years since its release, when I watched it, I would watch it at any time and still be entertained.

I give this film a rating of 9/10.