A Quiet Place bugged me. It’s not a bad film. Intriguing concept. I flinched a few times.
But the movie had these annoying little detail issues that kept me from loving it. No flick has every detail covered, but this was so sloppy I felt like that old guy in the film who couldn’t hold it in after his wife died. I listed a few below.
But first, a quick intro: A Quiet Place is an apocalyptic horror by John Krasinski starring Krasinski and Emily Blunt. Huge insect-like aliens have taken over the Earth. They can’t see but their hearing is good…really good. So everyone’s gotta be quiet or…crunch! Squished by a bug. If you need more than that, go to Wikipedia like everyone else.
Here are the detail stuff that I wished the film worked out better.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
No child left behind. No parent would let a toddler take up rear. I wouldn’t do that taking my son to the neighborhood park. Definitely wouldn’t happen in a dangerous apocalyptic world as in A Quiet Place.
The nail in the basement stairway. Why is there a nail there? And who the heck would leave a nail in the stairs like that? If I saw that, I’m pulling it out or filing it down — I wouldn’t just bend it sideways. If sound is an issue, I would stick a big block of hard rubber on it to avoid accidents. And later, after Emily Blunt has already stepped on it, I kept thinking someone else is going to step on that thing. That’s all I’m thinking about whenever I saw those stairs. Even when the creature’s coming down to the basement. I should be in suspense, but all I’m thinking about is that darn nail. Is Emily going to step on it again? Okay, now is it John’s turn? Here’s the creature, he’ll step on it for sure….
Basement is sound proof. I would stay in the basement almost all the time. Probably gets a bit stuffy down there, but it’s worth the risk! People talk in their sleep. Accidents happen, as we saw with the kids when playing Monopoly. You don’t need sign language if you just stay in the sound proof room.
Or…
Why don’t they make the entire house more sound-proof? There are limitations to how much work they can do, but it looks like they did nothing to make the place more sound-proof.
Have an emergency plan that makes more sense. Fireworks are a good idea. Have that. But I would set up another easier and faster way to distract the creatures. For instance, an emergency switch inside the house that triggers a horn or siren a hundred yards away.
Pregnancy. It happens. But these parents would be more responsible. It’s out of character. The screenwriters forced in a cheap complexity to the plot.
Flooded basement. How does Krasinski’s character not notice the water when he leaves the basement?
“Secret” weapon. Turns out it’s high frequency sound from Regan’s implant. Really??? No one in all of the great United States realized that the way to counter a creature with very sensitive hearing is to use high frequency noise?
They’re soft inside! Creature opens mouth. Emily shoots it with shotgun. Creature’s head explodes. That’s it…. The greatest military in the world couldn’t beat these things?
The movie was a huge success and a sequel is in the works. Hopefully, it won’t have these distracting detail issues as the first one.
Until then…shhhhh…be vewy vewy quiet, we hunting awiens.
