It’s day 89. Not in the Big Brother House or since Anthony McPartlin had a slug of the demon drink (if I was stuck in the former I would join him in drowning my sorrows in the latter), but day 89 since an army of reptilian creatures reduced the world to a Simon & Garfunkel classic. Namely, “The Sound of Silence”.

As the tagline goes: if they hear you, they hunt you. A fate which befell the youngest child of Evelyn and Lee Abbott (played by real-life husband and wife Emily Blunt and director and co-writer John Krasinski) who after launching a noisy space shuttle from the banks of a quiet river prompted the following parental panic: “Houston, we have a problem.”

Over nine months and a bump later (no Meg Ryan orgasm or post-coital strike of a match, I presume), the Abbots and their remaining two children (Millicent Simmonds as their deaf daughter Regan and Noah Jupe as their deaf, dumb and blind to the horrors of the world Marcus) continue to walk on egg shells ‒ not to mention a nail, in one of the most memorable and squeamish sequences in the film.

But this is no trite horror. Sure, there are a few jump out of your simmet moments, and the formulaic boxes of creaky floorboards, dingy basements and shadowy figures jack-in-the-boxing up in doorways are tripled ticked. But in the charged silence between the sparse dialogue (much of the communication is via nods and glances, gesticulation and sign language), the dynamics of parent-child relationships is put under the microscope through a series of questions.

Some spoken, like Evelyn’s helpless plea to Lee: “Who are we if we can’t protect them?” Most alluded to: How do you protect your children from the “creatures” and the bogeymen of this world? How much information do you share? How do you share it? What sacrifices are you willing to make? And if you fail to protect them, then what? How would you cope? Would you cope?

The answers to which Krasinski and his fellow writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck treat like a Boy Dylan lyric in that they are left “blowin’ in the wind”. Probably why one girl was overheard saying afterwards, “I don’t know what to make of that.”

A slow burner, yes. But, like most critics, I urge you to make a big noise for the silent wonder that is A Quiet Place which (apart from a neat, but lacking a big bang, ending) is gripping from the off, draws wonderfully nuanced performances from the small cast and is bolstered by a terrific score by Marco Beltrami who has form in suspense thrillers such as the surprising hit of 2015 The Shallows.

Director: John Krasinski
Writers: Bryan Woods (screenplay by), Scott Beck (screenplay by) 
Stars: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds
Peter Callaghan
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