Editorials
The Greatest Accomplishment of ‘A Quiet Place’ is Getting Audiences to STFU
One of the best horror movies in years is also one of the best theatrical experiences.
Since movies are both my passion and my job, I go to the movies pretty often. And most of the time, it’s horror movies that I’m paying to see up on the big screen. Unfortunately, there’s a big time downside of supporting horror in theaters, and it’s got nothing to do with the movies themselves. Rather, it has everything to do with the crowds.
Out of all the different types of movies, I’ve found horror movie audiences to be the most disruptive when the lights go out. This is particularly the case when it comes to PG-13 horror movies, which allow anyone 13 or older to buy a ticket. Asking teenagers to sit quietly for upwards of two hours, especially in the era of smart phones, is asking a lot, but it’s not just the teenagers who often chat (and even selfie) their way through movies. The art of being quiet at the movies, sitting still and chewing with your mouth closed, well, it’s a dying one. And all it takes is *one* bad apple to spoil the experience.
From the guy who’s trying to impress his date by showing her that he’s smarter than the movie characters, as well as far too brave and masculine to ever actually be scared, to the woman who not only kept her phone on but has no qualms about answering it during the movie, the theatrical experience has largely been soured over the years. It’s gotten to the point, honestly, where my excitement about going to the movies has been overshadowed by the anxiety I feel about the crowd I’m going to be seated with.
(The closest Alamo Drafthouse is two hours away, so it’s not a viable option for me.)
So you can imagine the dread I felt, despite my excitement to see the movie, when I purchased my ticket to see A Quiet Place, a PG-13 horror movie. Given the plot, I had assumed that a large portion of the movie was completely silent, and my fear was that the silence would be shattered by the rustling of candy wrappers, the chewing of popcorn, and the loud talking of an audience surely unable to sit in complete silence for 90 minutes. My fears increased tenfold when my local theater was PACKED.
But as the lights lowered and the endless trailers finally ended, something incredible and highly unexpected happened. Suddenly, the entire room went silent. You could’ve heard a pin drop and you probably could’ve even heard a mouse fart (and yes, mice do fart). The whole room, at least 75% filled up by people of all ages, became like a library. And if one person ate even one kernel of popcorn during the movie, I sure as hell didn’t hear it.
For years, I have had almost nothing but bad experiences at the movies, many of those at the very same theater I found myself in last night, but my experience with A Quiet Place was quite unlike the rest. It was as if everyone was obeying the rules the characters in the movie itself were forced to abide by in order to stay alive, and it’s clear to me that this was very much by design on the part of director John Krasinski. He may have recently admitted that he’s not a big horror fan, but Krasinski proves with A Quiet Place that he sure as hell knows how to scare an audience. The film is brilliantly orchestrated from shocking start to pitch perfect final shot; Krasinski truly holds you in the palm of his hands for 90 minutes, almost forcing you to shut up and pay attention.
There is very little dialogue throughout A Quiet Place, with the unique concept for the film allowing Krasinski to literally weaponize sound. If the characters in the movie make even the slightest sound, one not drowned out by a louder sound, the terrifying creatures will be drawn to their location and devour them. It’s a set of impossible rules that the characters have spent over a year playing by, and Krasinski essentially makes you part of their world by extension; just like the characters, the people I shared my theater with last night only made a peep when a louder sound than their chewing was guaranteed to drown it out. In that sense, A Quiet Place is a truly interactive horror movie experience.
No, making a sound while watching A Quiet Place in your local theater won’t result in a monster darting over to your location and killing you. But in a room full of people abiding by the film’s rules, I’m thinking you won’t likely be sitting next to someone who’s brave enough to break them. And given the movie is so attention-consuming right off the bat, I can’t imagine anyone not being invested enough to keep their eyes open, their mouth shut, and their hands as far away from wrappers, popcorn, and cell phones as possible.
Perusing Twitter today, looking at the accounts of friends as well as strangers, it seems my experience last night wasn’t an exception but rather the norm. And I can’t even believe I’m saying this, given I’ve been so publicly outspoken about my desire to never again have to watch a movie a crowd, but you need to see A Quiet Place with a crowd.
Buy a ticket. And keep your mouth shut.
I saw it in the theater yesterday. Packed theater, not a peep from anyone.
— K (@peasandkaris) April 6, 2018
Feeling thankful that my audience was actually VERY respectful during A QUIET PLACE. No talking, no cell phones, no nonsense… however, the theater itself kind of annoyed me… (thread)
— Jeff Konopka (@DeadAirJeff) April 6, 2018
#AQuietPlace was not only a fantastic movie, but the movie-going experience was so wild. The entire theater (1/2 full) was so insanely quiet, I often forgot other people were there. I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.
— Just Kim (@kimfaul) April 6, 2018
Same here! I didn’t hear the usual popcorn crunching & munching. It was tense & downright eerie!! I’ve been to a million movies & this was also a first for me. Unbelievably quiet! We heard the air conditioner coming on & that is just crazy!
— 💀Paul Hibbard💀 (@monstersRreel) April 6, 2018
Big ups to the crowd during my screening “A Quiet Place”. A mainstream, wide horror release where people aren’t laughing, talking, and texting the entire time? That’s unheard of!
— Colton Simpson🦖 (@xCJES) April 6, 2018
A QUIET PLACE has one of those high concepts that bonds an audience. It was rapt silence most of the way. Then a phone blooped in the crowd and a lady stage-whispered “oh you’re dead.” There followed a quick ruffle of chuckles across the theater, snapping back fast into tension.
— Benjamin Kramer (@benjaminkramer) April 6, 2018
A Quiet Place is terrific, a 90 min movie with a solid 40 mins of pure suspense. Great crowd at the cinema too, they didn’t make a sound (except for the screams).
— Tom Connors (@baloobas1) April 2, 2018
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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