[BIG FAT SPOILERS ALERT]
I must be late to the party but I have only watched the movie yesterday. I thought I should share some of my thoughts on it. First, I enjoyed this horror flick very much. What made me decide to watch it was the stories I heard about how unconventional the script was. In addition, there was little to no dialogue in it which always makes for the most perfect storytelling experience when it's done right.
On a side note, I need to mention that a script breaking the rules and making it big doesn't make me excited. I am a firm believer that breaking the rules is a last-resort for writers. It's something you do for the sake of the story or for the sake of the reader when there is absolutely no way around it, never for the sake of your ego.
Let's dive in. I didn't care for the character in the opening scene. Not even when they lost the kid. I really wanted to understand why I didn't. Apparently, it's because the whole situation in the supermarket was alien to me. I've never lived in such a world and I was never forced to stay quiet in order to survive.
Could have I done it any better? I asked myself the question. I thought maybe if the older brother craved some potato chips and had his father tell him "no" it would have worked better in creating a connection between me and the character. What if later on, the father surprised the son with a couple of potato chip bags behind the waterfall. The scene would have paid off and made us hit two birds with one stone. I say this because craving potato chips and not being able to get one is something I could have related to better than a mother giving her child pills for a stomachache. Or a child wanting a noisy toy. I don't know. That's just me.
I kept thinking about where was the exact scene that made me relate to each character. The father was the earliest. His hard work to help his deaf daughter was rejected. I can relate to that. Then it was the kid when he was genuinely scared by the noise made by the flapping fish. Why should a child that old be afraid that much of a flipping fish? It felt unfair. On the other hand, the way I related to the daughter was the most interesting one. It was the scene where she wasn't even present. When the kid explained to his father that she thinks he blames her for the tragic accident and the father kinda hesitated before denying it. My thought was that he might really blame her for living him behind to a certain extent. I felt sorry for her. Because I didn't think it's fair. As for the mother, she was the latest bloomer. The earliest connection with her was when she confessed her guilt for not carrying the child.
Now, I asked myself a different question. If I only cared for the whole family that late into the movie, why was I invested in the story? What kept me on my edge? What made me want to see more and watch how it goes with them? That was really a hard question for me. Because I kept reaching for the answer and it kept eluding me. However, I finally put my finger on it. I was hooked by the unanswered questions more than anything else. I kept watching out of curiosity more than really being worried about them. What would happen to her once she steps on the nail? Would she scream? Would she suck it up somehow? Would the monster hear her reaction? That was the driving force for me, not "What would happen to that poor woman when the nail rip her foot up?"
So how did the writer manage to make me that interested in the unfolding events that he kept my attention without making me really care for them? I needed to solve this puzzle because there must be something amazing to learn out of this. And my investigation bore some fruits. Two things made the story work: simplicity and authenticity.
Simplicity meant there were no distractions whatsoever from the main plot. A family, who lived a tragic event that broke them on so many levels, are preparing for a very dangerous event that could fix or end their lives. Pure, beautiful, and was stripped of any unnecessary drama gimmicks. A family will go through hell to have something great that could make them whole again.
As for authenticity, it was such a breath of fresh air to have characters in a horror movie actually act smart under such special circumstances. The writers did a great job making them act as any sane people will act in that kind of world. Yet, despite their shrewdness and caution, the noisy miracle of life will still challenge their abilities to the limits. In addition to the fucking nail.
But why simplicity and authenticity made A Quiet Place get away with a lot of flaws? It's because it protected the homogeneity of the experience. It allowed us to dive in into the genre and never come out to the surface except for some really brief moments. Keeping your story focused is such a lost, powerful art in storytelling. Once your brain tunes in to a certain emotion. Let it be fear, love, suspense, or sadness. Your brain will crave staying tuned to the same frequency. It doesn't like the emotion dial to dance around. That's what this movie did right. It protected the atmosphere that we were enjoying. It didn't destroy it with stupidity or unnecessary side-plots. It managed in a way to focus a laser beam of entertainment and never put it away from our forehead. And that was quite the accomplishment and made for an amazing experience.
Keep it simple. Keep it real. People will enjoy it.
Submitted July 07, 2018 at 03:53PM by Ammar__ https://ift.tt/2zjGolf
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