Rating: A+

Out of everything to come out of SXSW 2018, easily one of my favorite films to hit the screen was the new horror thriller fromJohn Krasinski and Emily Blunt, A Quiet Place. This film had the crowds curled up in their seats when they weren't on the edge of it. All I have to say about this movie is OMG!!!! It was just what this genre needs.

The film follows a family just trying to survive after the world has collapsed and been taken over by some sort of creatures that are attracted to sound. Forced to live in a world of almost complete silence the family learns sign language to communicate, they have laid sand down in any around they travel to muffle the noise of footsteps and avoid objects that may create a lot of sounds to draw the creatures close. I am feeling tense just writing about this right now. After a serious loss, the family is struggling to move on and are also facing the danger of childbirth, as the mom (Emily Blunt) is pregnant. Anyone who has ever had a baby can surely tell you that the idea of doing it naturally and being totally silence is next to impossible. This event weighs over the audience like an atomic bomb about to drop.  As the family struggles with really communicating their feelings to each other, a series of events changes one night of their life forever.

This cast could not be any more perfect for this film. John and Emily (who are also real-life Husband and wife) are perfect on screen together. For this film being Krasinski's first jab at the horror genre, he has really hit it out of the park. It is everything you love about horror films rolled into one. The child actors Millicent Simmonds (who is actually deaf in real life) and Noah Jupe bring just the right amount of innocence and youth to the film. Just because the apocalypse has happened doesn't mean we get a pass on teenage angst. It is just one more element thrown into this completely crazy world these characters are forced to endure.  While the physical cast is tremendous the character of sound is a force itself in the film. The careful tug of war between sound and silence is so perfectly balanced that even the quietest scenes are so loud in the viewer's mind. It is one hell of an experience.

This film kept my anxiety turned up to eleven for the whole movie It doesn't waste any time getting right down to business with the action and the dread you are sure to feel through the majority of the movie. I give A Quiet Place a solid A+. If you don't walk out of the theater thinking John Krasinski has found his true calling and that Emily Blunt is a total bad ass can we even be friends? I don't know. Either way, go see the movie. Seriously. Do it. You owe it to yourself. It is worth it. 

A Quiet Place hits theaters everywhere April 6th.