We Found Love in ‘A Quiet Place’
The Scoop features personal essays on movie-centric topics.
By Elliott Cuff
John Krasinski’s sci-fi horror movie A Quiet Place is best remembered as a nerve-shredder. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where making even the slightest sound can lead to a quick and brutal death, the film spends most of its runtime walking on a knife’s edge and was lauded upon release for exhibiting a startlingly impressive control of sound. Krasinski directs with sleek proficiency, making space for all of his actors (including himself) to shine and wringing out every last drop of tension that made the film a memorable theatrical experience.
But what sets A Quiet Place apart from its similarly high-concept contemporaries is what lies beneath the surface-level facade of a thrilling creature feature: the beating heart of a familial love story.
A Love That Binds
Described by Krasinski in the build-up to its release as a “love letter” to his kids, A Quiet Place is a celebration of the type of love that binds a family together—a love that’s strong enough to persist through times of desperation and tragedy.
After the cold open sequence in which the youngest child of Lee (Krasinski) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) Abbott is tragically killed by a monstrous being with otherworldly hearing abilities, the film flashes forward a year and the Abbotts have seemingly returned to normal. Evelyn is pregnant, Lee is supporting his family, and children Marcus and Regan are living life as normally as they can in near silence on their family farm.
It’s instinctive to immediately question why someone would risk pregnancy in a world where making any significant sound is tantamount to a death sentence, but it’s the very fact that Lee and Evelyn haven’t abandoned hope for expanding their family despite the odds that makes their love for one another so richly compelling.
Love is often represented in A Quiet Place not by spoken words but by actions. Lee and Evelyn’s tender slow dance to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” is the most evident example of their romantic connection, but the film is flush with quieter and more subtle indicators that every action is taken with the preservation of their family in mind, such as the many miles of sound-dampening, sand-covered pathways.
Lee in particular represents the ultimate parental figure, giving himself over completely to the tireless pursuit of supporting the needs of his family. We see this when he takes Marcus to the waterfall and gifts him a moment where he can speak aloud for the first time in years, or through his determined efforts to fix Regan’s cochlear implant. We also see plenty of evidence that the family worked hard to best prepare for the arrival of their newborn, having constructed a soundproofed room and prepared a bassinet fitted with an oxygen tank. This is in addition to the light-based warning system set up around the farm and the backup fireworks distraction tactic.
The Impenetrable Love of Family
In any post-apocalyptic film, we can expect to see characters fight for self-preservation. It’s human nature to cling to life by any means necessary, and conflict from these stories is often defined by how much the characters are willing to sacrifice to save others as well as or indeed instead of themselves.
The parents in A Quiet Place give everything they have for their family right up until they’ve got nothing left to give. Evelyn suffers through the agonizing pain of childbirth without making a sound as long as she’s physically able, and Lee eventually gives his life willingly in order to protect his children.
A Quiet Place is an exciting and suspenseful horror movie that could’ve been interesting on the back of its concept alone, but the writers Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, and Krasinski had much more to say. It’s a story all about love and sacrifice that champions the impenetrable love of family, and that’s what makes each of its dramatic moments so powerful.
Elliott Cuff is a writer, journalist, and film enthusiast. Follow him on Twitter @CuffWrites and Instagram @elliottlovesmovies.