A Quiet Place (2018)★★★★★

So…I’m on a roll with movies I apparently didn’t give enough of a chance the first time around? Maybe it’s because this movie was SO hyped up when it came out, but I remember thinking “yeah, that was okay”…and today I truly appreciated it.

Given the premise and execution, it definitely requires almost ALL of your attention. It’s not a “background noise” kind of movie (maybe that should be obvious from the name alone). But when you’re paying attention, there’s a lot about it to love.

It’s a tightly told story. Things are HAPPENING from the start. You get so much character development in such a short amount of time and with so little dialogue. And everyone delivers a great and truly terrified performance. The ending is so full of built-up tension.

Earlier this year I commented that The Silence was panned for being too similar to this film. Rewatching this, I can see why that might be the case. I’m betting the film adaptation of the novel was made mostly in response to how well this movie did when it came out. But the novel came out in 2015, and the pieces of the story that were similar were in the novel, so I don’t think it’s quite fair to call it a full “ripoff” of this film.

This movie actually does more with silence than The Silence does, if you can believe that. And it does it really well. I watched this movie in broad daylight, stopping and starting because the dog kept really wanting to sit in the sun outside, and I’m STILL giving it five stars. It’s definitely worth your time. And attention.