“A Quiet Place” speaks volumes with what it doesn’t say or show.
The horror genre is often most successful when it doesn’t show too much of its monsters. Better to let the audience fill in the blanks of the bogeyman hiding in the shadows. It worked in “Jaws”, “Alien”, “The Babadook”, and now “A Quiet Place.” The alien monsters are revealed ever-so-slowly by director John Krasinski. These creatures that hunt by sound force the family in the story, headed by Krasinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt, to keep quiet as to not summon the beasts. Such silence also forces the audience to sit still, pinned to their seats for this 90-minute chiller. The effect is so disquieting and terrifying, “A Quiet Place” is sure to be the word-of-mouth frightener all season long.