Silent but deadly.

When it comes to horror, the hook is king. In a crowded marketplace of cash-grabs and crushing unoriginality, horrors live and die on their concept. As we enter an era of unprecedented choice for horror audiences, you’ve got to offer up something pretty damn special to cut through all that noise.

Were 28 Days Later and Shawn of the Dead mere run-of-the-mill zombie flicks, absolutely no one would be talking about them over a decade later, and if Get Out didn’t have the scathing, socio-political spin it did, few would give it the time of day in decades to come. For any modern, 21st century horror to make itself heard, its concept has got to be something unique.

And boy, is A Quiet Place unique. With a hook so ingeniously simple you have to wonder why it's not been done to this extent before, A Quiet Place takes a decidedly B-movie alien invasion format and spins it out into something else entirely.

When a legion of ruthless, indestructible aliens invade Earth, the Abbott family find themselves caught in a relentless fight for survival. With the mysterious creatures hunting only through sound, the Abbotts must navigate their everyday lives in total silence, keeping one step ahead at all times as they quietly battle to protect themselves and everything they hold dear.

From the get-go, there’s something about A Quiet Place that just clicks. There really isn’t anything overtly complicated in its concept, yet the wonderful simplicity of its design pulls you in and doesn’t let go.

Being stuck in a world of silence is already an infinitely fascinating/horrifying prospect on its own, but throw in a few blood-thirsty aliens that’ll tear you a new one if you dare sneeze, and you’ve got yourself something downright terrifying on your hands. With the tension gauge already at eleven the moment we’re sent tip-toeing around an eerily abandoned shop to scavenge for medical supplies with our protagonists, you know we're onto something good. The only real worry from this point is just whether the film can stick its landing after such a positive start.

It’s a fear not without foundation, as countless movies of all shapes and sizes have set themselves up with a fantastic concept before promptly blowing it all as they fail to follow through on their initial promise. Ensuring there's no such concern here, A Quiet Place manages to hold steady through a taut 90-minute running time to deliver the goods.

Plotting a tightly told tale that never once stretches itself beyond its means, this is lo-fi horror at its best. As A Quiet Place drops us blind (and deaf) into a distressing and wholly disorientating situation, keeps its focus tight and tense, before pulling us back out again without warning; it becomes a pitch-perfect example of low-budget, high-concept genre filmmaking.

Refusing to be overshadowed by the setup, the film’s plot has more than enough about it to back up the bold premise, ensuring a well-rounded, nerve-shredding viewing experience that kicks any accusations of gimmickry to the curb. But, while it the narrative largely sticks within the specifics of its own rules, the tightly coiled tension of the unrelenting silence does find the film buckling under the pressure occasionally.

The moments are slight, but they're certainly there, as the intensely focused environment makes it hard not to analyse every minute detail and character action through a magnifying glass. As the logic of the aliens appears to differ from moment to moment and the occasional bit of eye-rolling narrative convenience creeps in, it often feels like A Quiet Place might cave altogether, yet these incidents never become much of an issue.

Even as you internally berate a character for making ridiculous situational decisions, or the camera pans down to show an object conveniently left on the side for future narrative purposes, it matters not when the execution is this good. Unrelenting tension will get you a long way on even the flimsiest of horror setups, but with the perfectly calibrated combination of white-knuckle terror and rock-solid concept, A Quiet Place goes above and beyond to ensure that any minor imperfections are forgiven.

Drawing clear influence from the stalking terror of Alien and Jaws, while injecting in a very modern horror sensibility, A Quiet Place is unafraid to utilise its long, protracted silences for its own gain. With no audible dialogue to draw your attention, the relentless silence is almost too much to bear at times, with the film allowing the menace of its aliens to loom large over every single scene, swathing us in an all-encompassing blanket of terror.

Like both Alien and Jaws, A Quiet Place wisely holds back on showing us its monsters until absolutely necessary, creating the kind of threat that becomes far more menacing in its absence than it ever would up close and personal. The very finest horrors play out as much in your imagination than they do up on screen, and A Quiet Place full well knows this as it keeps the threat lurking largely in the shadows.

Playing out like an extended cat and mouse scene from any number of horror movies, A Quiet Place pushes its limited canvas as far as it can possibly go, with director and star, John Krasinski, demonstrating just how much unadulterated terror can be squeezed from such restricted surroundings.

In only his second directing gig, Jim from The Office has not only cultivated himself a spectacular beard, but quite the filmmaking pedigree, as he exhibits admirable restraint, a keen eye, and a confident hand for someone with such limited experience behind the camera. Arriving with a clear, considered game plan and leaving with the crowd wanting more, Krasinski turns in a mature, low-key piece of horror filmmaking that shows he has what it takes to make a real name for himself in the directing game.

In front of the camera, there’s little surprise that the chemistry between Krasinski and co-star Emily Blunt is so strong, considering their real life relations, however, this shouldn’t overshadow the power of their individual performances. Slipping into the situation seamlessly, both actors go all-in to sell the weariness and barely-contained fear of the situation, while the deeply primal instinct of sacrificing everything to protect their children, ensures that we’re emotionally with them until the bitter end.

With another incredible performance to add to her collection, Blunt is the true heart of the film and the glue that holds the family together, even as it threatens to fall apart altogether. As Krasinski’s father figure begins to struggle with the fear and pressure of the situation, it’s left to Blunt to step up with a power house performance that grows and grows as the film progresses, showing the aliens the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children.

Together with the fantastic Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds as the two children, Krasinski and Blunt put absolutely everything into their performances, breaking free of their silent confines to deliver something both powerful and wonderfully nuanced that would certainly have been lost through dialogue. As it is, the physical communication and sign language utilised is a lovely touch that transcends verbal communication to lend character interactions a real emotional whack.

Stripping back communication to its raw, physical form lends a familial intimacy that would otherwise be absent, and it’s this emotional warmth that ultimately makes A Quiet Place so an affective piece. Horror films are a great many things, but emotionally resonant is generally not one of them, yet A Quiet Place spins this notion on its head by creating an emotional core that lets you care deeply about the characters and gives the moments of horror such devastating impact when they arrive.

Under the all the aliens, cool hooks, and remorseless tension, A Quiet Place starts with a very traditional family drama structure and works backwards from there, ensuring that its heart is in the right place, before layering on the horror and monsters. It’s this distinctive, character-led approach that elevates A Quiet Place above the genre also-rans, as Krasinski takes his time to slowly eke out little character elements bit by bit, allowing the characters and their bond to blossom, even as the horrors unfold violently around them.

These characters aren’t the usual faceless alien-fodder to be picked off one by one with little impact. These are living, breathing humans that we bond with and invest in as they’re thrown into an utterly hopeless situation that, while fantastical, feels all too real.

Going deep to the heart of the iron-clad bonds that pull families together and the tiniest rifts that can tear them apart, the poignancy of witness this family drama play out to the backdrop of such horrific circumstance, as each family member’s life hangs by the thinnest of threads, is heart-wrenching in the extreme and almost too much to bear at times. Yet, it's precisely this deep emotional investment that marks A Quiet Place out from the horror crowd.

A tight, emotionally wrought alien invasion horror, A Quiet Place lives up to the hype of its killer premise to ensure it never once slips into gimmickry. Pushing the unique twist of its silent setup to the absolute limit, the film makes the most of its small cast and restricted environment to offer an unrelenting level of tension that few other horrors can match. Through John Krasinski’s assured direction, a talented cast led by the ever-wonderful Emily Blunt, and an intimate, emotionally charged setup; we’re dragged, kicking and (silently) screaming through the mill, in a tense and satisfyingly terrifying tale of love, survival, and freaky blind aliens.