Movies: A Quiet Place

[beowulf]

Just goes to show as long as you've got a big name the average consumer will go watch a movie that looks painfully bad.

Just goes to show you have no taste in movies.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Just goes to show you have no taste in movies.

The negativity in the comment was referring to the King Kong/Jurassic Park mashup with the albino gorilla.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

I will say one shot I really liked that will probably stick with me for a little bit:

Spoiler

when her taking of the baby out of the crib coincided with the alien coming out of the water at the same exact time.

 

[beowulf]

The negativity in the comment was referring to the King Kong/Jurassic Park mashup with the albino gorilla.

Ahhh yes sorry then. I got dragged to that this past weekend. It was a meh action flick and I like Johnson as an actor but they totally lost me when he gets shot in the gut is off screen for 2-3 minutes and suddenly he is fine like nothing happened and goes about jumping around, running, etc. I can suspend reality to a certain level for these types of movie but that passed the line...someone being shot right in the gut would not be able to do anything he did for the rest of the movie.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Ahhh yes sorry then. I got dragged to that this past weekend. It was a meh action flick and I like Johnson as an actor but they totally lost me when he gets shot in the gut is off screen for 2-3 minutes and suddenly he is fine like nothing happened and goes about jumping around, running, etc. I can suspend reality to a certain level for these types of movie but that passed the line...someone being shot right in the gut would not be able to do anything he did for the rest of the movie.

Normally I'd be pissed that you just spoiled it but I have zero intention of watching.

 

[beowulf]

Normally I'd be pissed that you just spoiled it but I have zero intention of watching.

Figured as much and it's also a three week old movie which is general considered passed the spoiler point on these boards.

 

[Lou is God]

Tense, suspenseful movie. Lots of questions afterwards, but while I was watching it, it really held my attention. In terms of reviews, I think it is getting bonus points just for being significantly better than almost all of its recent horror genre competition. Definitely worth seeing on a big screen.

Just saw it tonight, was a hard watch in the same way It Comes at Night was but otherwise very well made, but my three top questions/observations was this:

Spoiler

1) How come Lee didn't move his family by the waterfall if it was a safe place to make noise?
2) Even if you made a noise, as long as you keep quiet after that, shouldn't you be alright? And if the creatures hearing was that excellent, then they should have picked up footsteps even on sand and barefoot
3) Might be nitpicking with this one but for example when Reagan was in her room, all I keep seeing where things to knock over and make noise, even in their hallway I wouldn't have pictures on the wall, anything that wasn't nailed down I would have put away

 

[beowulf]

Krasinski is saying a "sequel" might happen. Talks about how during filming he would think about the people at the other end of the fires that were lite when it got dark.

Maybe a movie from the point of view of another group(s) happening during the same time frame as this one?​

 

[Lou is God]

Krasinski is saying a "sequel" might happen. Talks about how during filming he would think about the people at the other end of the fires that were lite when it got dark.

Maybe a movie from the point of view of another group(s) happening during the same time frame as this one?​

I don't think a sequel would work for this kind of movie.....but a prequel on the other hand....

 

[Jussi]

I don't think a sequel would work for this kind of movie.....but a prequel on the other hand....

What's the point? The newspaper headlines already showed what happened.

Oh yeah, just watched it. Definitely one of the better horror movies in recent years. Had a couple of obligatory stupid character action moments though, like when Krasinski's character couldn't hear that water in the barn. I'd probably give this 8½ or 9-/10.

 

[Lou is God]

What's the point? The newspaper headlines already showed what happened.

Oh yeah, just watched it. Definitely one of the better horror movies in recent years. Had a couple of obligatory stupid character action moments though, like when Krasinski's character couldn't hear that water in the barn. I'd probably give this 8½ or 9-/10.

What would be the point of doing a sequel? How much different can you go?

 

[Supermassive]

If you want a real challenge, watch it without any English subtitles. We watched it that way and were trying to interpret the sign language using contextual clues and earlier/later dialogue. Kind of a fun experiment.

I like this type of alien movie because you can always hypothesize why the aliens respond to THIS sound and not THAT sound, how much or little the protagonists know about them, etc. It’s awesome to watch a horror movie, like this one or Get Out, where the target victims can fight back with ingenuity and invention. And like IT, the early devastating loss sets the tone of actual terror/fear for the whole movie.

 

[Jussi]

What would be the point of doing a sequel? How much different can you go?

I didn't say anything about there needing to be a sequel. I'm just against prequels when the history is more or less known.

 

[The Gongshow]

Wasn't bad, a couple cliches here and there but over all it was a unique concept and had some tense moments. 7/10

 

[Lou is God]

I didn't say anything about there needing to be a sequel. I'm just against prequels when the history is more or less known.

Actually, I was quite interested in what happened beforehand, for example, where did they come from they never did answer.

 

[tacogeoff]

Finally got the time to watch it and really enjoyed it. As all movies there was some stuff that left you wonder why/how etc. . Acting was very well done. The girl bc of her actions/stubbornness was a bit frustrating but I guess that just means I was into the movie. overall a solid 8/10 for me, great effort by Krasinski.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Liked it, but thought the ending really fell flat.

Imho the creatures' obvious weakness was way too obvious and easily exploited. And as soon as you saw the girl had a cochlear implant, you just knew that of course it ends up being a crucial plot point.

 

[tacogeoff]

Liked it, but thought the ending really fell flat.

Imho the creatures' obvious weakness was way too obvious and easily exploited. And as soon as you saw the girl had a cochlear implant, you just knew that of course it ends up being a crucial plot point.

True. You raise some good points in regards to the weakness and subtle hints. The nail placement facing up on the staircase was one of the biggest problems I had. As there is absolutely no reason for that nail to be there as there is no brace underneath to nail into....so someone would of had to put a nail in only about a 1/4 of the way in and say oh hey there is nothing to nail into...but instead of pulling it out I will just lazily bend it down so everyone can step on it lol. Another aspect that bothered me a bit was how the creatures reminded me of the demigorgon, (plus the lights flickering on approach) from Stranger Things. Minor gripes though.

Just for fun I went over to boxoffice mojo to see how it did in the theatres. According to them the movie had a production budget of 17m and so far Dom/Int has brought in 331m. Not to shabby at all and I guess that is why there is talk earlier in the forum about a possible sequel.

A Quiet Place (2018) - Box Office Mojo

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

I've never done it, but I'm guessing that farming corn is a fairly loud endeavor

 

[ProstheticConscience]

True. You raise some good points in regards to the weakness and subtle hints. The nail placement facing up on the staircase was one of the biggest problems I had. As there is absolutely no reason for that nail to be there as there is no brace underneath to nail into....so someone would of had to put a nail in only about a 1/4 of the way in and say oh hey there is nothing to nail into...but instead of pulling it out I will just lazily bend it down so everyone can step on it lol. Another aspect that bothered me a bit was how the creatures reminded me of the demigorgon, (plus the lights flickering on approach) from Stranger Things. Minor gripes though.

Just for fun I went over to boxoffice mojo to see how it did in the theatres. According to them the movie had a production budget of 17m and so far Dom/Int has brought in 331m. Not to shabby at all and I guess that is why there is talk earlier in the forum about a possible sequel.

A Quiet Place (2018) - Box Office Mojo

On one hand, you feel for the people and it's well acted and you can believe the characters, and there was a solid premise for a monster movie.

On the other, so many times the Plot Points were beating you over the head. Yeah, I also hated that nail. As the mom walks up the stairs and gets her dress snagged, there it is sticking up bright as day in the middle of your screen. It was like a subtitle came up: (THIS WILL COME UP AGAIN, JUST WATCH!!) And the flood in the barn that just...happened. Somehow. Conveniently placing the mom in peril! No one noticed that leak...? Which came from...what? Yeah, okay.

The quiet childbirth set my wife off. She didn't buy it. To put it mildly.

 

[LarKing]

Yeah you definitely have to turn your brain off a bit for this movie. A creature that could hear sounds from that far of distances would be able to hear heartbeats and people tip toeing if close enough too. I liked it though, pretty original idea for a horror movie and I was on the edge of my seat the entire movie.

 

[Neutrinos]

Liked it, but thought the ending really fell flat.

Imho the creatures' obvious weakness was way too obvious and easily exploited. And as soon as you saw the girl had a cochlear implant, you just knew that of course it ends up being a crucial plot point.

Their weakness was also bullets to the face, which then makes their whole overtaking of the planet that much more implausible when you consider the number of guns in circulation

 

[tacogeoff]

Their weakness was also bullets to the face, which then makes their whole overtaking of the planet that much more implausible when you consider the number of guns in circulation

A backstory would help in that area. Did they appear in large numbers all at once and just start killing? There is three in that tiny town that he knew of, how many in urban centers? Upon initial outbreak in a densly populated city could they ravage the population with 10-20 kills a minute as they were pretty damn fast?

So many questions. Would love a prequel to understand more about them.

 

[Deen]

A backstory would help in that area. Did they appear in large numbers all at once and just start killing? There is three in that tiny town that he knew of, how many in urban centers? Upon initial outbreak in a densly populated city could they ravage the population with 10-20 kills a minute as they were pretty damn fast?

So many questions. Would love a prequel to understand more about them.

Maybe they were just reptiles that mutated from Chernobyl.

 

[Osprey]

I finally got to see this. It was pretty decent and worth watching, but also a bit run of the mill. There are starting to be more and more of these "lite horror" films--ex. It Comes at Night, Don't Breathe, It Follows, Get Out, 10 Cloverfield Lane--and I wouldn't say that this is any better than those. It had potential to be special, but I didn't find it as smart or suspenseful as it should've been. I applaud Krasinksi for doing a capable job of writing, producing and directing, especially as a novice, but I'm not sure that he was the best person to get the most out of the idea.

I normally try not to think too much during films, but that's almost impossible with films of this genre, especially when they're this quiet and you have a lot of time to think. Besides some of the things that have already been mentioned, these are some things that bothered me:

Spoiler

* It ought to be pretty easy to eradicate the monsters if you can lure them anywhere by just making loud noises and they arrive one at a time, walk around slowly, completely blind, and can be taken down with just a single shotgun blast to the head.
* Where does the family get all of the electricity to run the lights and power the father's equipment, and if they have a generator for that, wouldn't the monsters have long since destroyed it?
* I know from experience that, if you're trying to stay quiet, you don't walk down the middle of a staircase, especially a rickety wooden one. A family like them would've long since learned to walk up and down the sides of the staircase, instead.
* A mother who's raised three kids ought to know that the way to quiet a baby is to put it against her heart, so that it can be soothed by her heartbeat. Instead, she holds the baby up above her collarbone, where its head has no contact with her body. It may be a minor thing, but it was an obvious one that took me out of the scene. Besides, imagine how much smarter the scene would've been if we'd seen the baby's head placed against her chest, heard a few beats of her heart and then heard the baby fall silent.
* The mother gets the sack caught on the nail and, even though she's supposed to be utterly quiet, she decides to pull even harder and use brute force to get past the hangup, rather than checking what it's caught on, so that she doesn't accidentally rip the bag and send the contents clattering down the steps.
* As silly as the placement and predictability of the nail was, it was distracting to see that it was still standing straight up in several scenes after that and the mother didn't seem to pay it any attention or even point it out to her kids so that they wouldn't step on it (and surely give them all away). Quickly showing her gently bending it back over, covering it with something or even just being sure that she and her kids didn't step anywhere near it would've addressed that.
* It was a little irritating that the monsters' weakness was revealed halfway through and it took the rest of the film for the daughter to figure it out (and, even at the end, she was really slow to realize). For the last half of the film, instead of wondering how they were possibly going to defeat/escape the monsters, I was just waiting for them to wise up and realize the ultimate solution that we already knew. Imagine if Signs had revealed halfway through that its monsters had a major weakness to water.
* On a related note, the poignancy of the father's sacrifice was muted for me because his daughter forced it (essentially, she got her own father killed) by turning off her hearing aid. If she had made the connection in the silo and left it on, the monster would've run off again and her father wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself for them. She's just a kid, but it irks me when writers can't think of any better way to explain a major moment like a character sacrificing himself than to have another character make a bad decision that we even know is one at the time.

If some of that seems like nitpicking, it's only because I liked it enough that I wish that I could've liked it more and agreed with all of the praise. It's not as special as it could've been, but, again, it's still pretty decent and worth seeing.