The 'Quiet Place' Movies Have a Monster Problem
The 'Quiet Place' movies are all entertaining enough, but they're hampered by a huge issue with the invading aliens.
Conceptually, A Quiet Place is great stuff. And, three movies in, it’s clear the films consistently provide actors with a challenge they relish, forced to convey a wide range of emotions (fear, strength, resilience, terror, etc.) often without the ability to speak or make even the slightest sound.
That’s because if they did, they might just be killed by a mysterious, invading alien species.
Audiences obviously dig this near-silent horror franchise universe being built, and it often does a lot of cool work playing with that initial concept (though I’d say it doesn’t go nearly far enough yet). But that’s not the issue with the Quiet Place movies.
The issue is that they’ve got a big monster problem.
A Quiet Place: Day One - which moves the proceedings to New York City - is serviceable if not spinning its wheels for the most part. With the trilogy now before us, we’ve grown accustomed to what it’s like for individuals in this world to have to completely reinvent their lives to avoid making a sound. We’ve been privy to plenty of close calls - a book dropping on the floor, the customary background actor losing their sanity and being killed, etc. Most of the time, it still works well; natural tension can take you pretty far in a horror franchise.
But those aliens? What am I to make of these CGI sludge beasts? Who knew they were even called “Death Angels?” They move so blindingly fast it’s often impossible to make sense of their anatomy and movement or to even really fear their presence (the xenomorphs these are not). And when these movies finally give the monsters a chance to slow down and stalk their prey, it’s harder still to understand what the hell I’m even looking at. Their open faces often shrouded in darkness, everything blends together; I end up looking at concept art for these movies and think, “Why couldn’t I have just seen this in the final product?”
It took a random video I saw of these “Death Angels” on display at Halloween Horror Nights to even remember where the mouths were on these things. These practical displays of the monsters are actually scary, and the Quiet Place franchise would go much further to try and replicate this more in the actual movies moving forward.
To be honest, I don’t think anyone is watching these movies out of some desire to see the alien creatures. The xenomorphs are a major element of what made Alien: Romulus so good and, as always, are a huge part of what make that franchise worth revisiting. With A Quiet Place, I think audiences are still tied to the initial concept at play, and the franchise appears unable to figure where to now take it from there.
None of the Quiet Place movies are bad; they’re always an enjoyable watch for me. But there isn’t much that sticks with me after the fact and I don’t know if I’d ever call any of them classics without the aliens becoming anything more than CGI blurs. If I’m getting killed that fast by these alien invaders, what’s really the problem anyway? Seems like instantly getting put out of my misery in a world that can’t be salvaged is a pretty decent way to go. It’s not like I’m getting kidnapped and cocooned only to give birth to a beast that’ll burst straight out of my chest while I’m still alive or anything.
One final thought on Day One: eating days-old pizza that was just left out? Forget speaking; it’s the violently loud diarrhea that's going to give you away to the Death Angels.