In about three days, the Walt Disney Company is going to release “The Avengers: Infinity War” film, which is projected to have a near half-billion dollar opening weekend. “The Avengers: Infinity War” is a decade in the making, spawning from narrative efforts put in motion since the 2008 release of “Iron Man”, and is proof that the Disney Company has one of the most profitable film franchises on their hands.

Yet, this article isn’t about Disney, or any other blockbuster film, because this film is unlike any other blockbuster that I’ve seen. A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski, is definitely worth watching.

Over the long weekend, as many other juniors were out visiting colleges, I was at home, nearly a thousand miles away from Loomis, bored out of my mind. Although movies have always been a sure-fire refuge for me, lately, I have started to become slightly weary of the activity. Movies require commitment, and confidence in one’s selection-if the film that you have chosen isn’t great, you are now stuck in a sub-par story for over two hours. This may seem like a first-world problem, because it is. Still, a problem nonetheless.

So there I was, Saturday night, scrolling through the latest releases of my nearby theater. Mindless blockbuster after blockbuster, I was deterred by the potential of my evening. “Ready Player One” sounded great, but seemed like yet another cultural mashup that I just wasn’t in the mood for. “Rampage” sounded fun, but it was also just another Dwayne Johnson film. Poster after poster of some film that I was pretty sure I had seen before, infinitely redone to be slightly different enough so that no one notices.  

I think “A Quiet Place” stands out for this reason. The premise of the film is that a town has been wrought with creatures whose main trigger is sound, which forces what would have been a trite action film into becoming a silent, careful thriller. John Krasinski, who some might know as Jim from “The Office”, cited Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg as influences; and it shows. The movie theater audience was completely silent during this film, which is completely unusual. I distinctly remember a couple to my left beginning to talk during the opening credits of the film, only to completely silence themselves as they saw that this movie was unlike any they had seen before. Because it is.

“A Quiet Place” can be categorized as a horror film, a suffocating thriller, or a two-hour long metaphor about the strength of parenting. All of those characterizations would be correct, and still not quite capture how inventive this film is. The premise isn’t completely original (one only needs to look to “Signs”, another film about a family stuck in the middle of an alien-invasion), and the cinematography isn’t the best-but none of that matters.

In a time of blockbusters and superhero flicks dredging the box office, films like “A Quiet Place” remind us why movies were so fun in the first place.

Written by: Shlok Sharma ’19 (Web Editor)