A Quiet Place (2018)

just saw this and it is fantastically bad in almost every respect except photography and acting.

perhaps not since CRASH has such a terrible film been received so well

About to see this with my daughter. Don't see how it could make anyone Crash-mad unless everyone in the movie is very stupid and, I dunno, saved by god at the end. Will report back in a couple of hours.

Will vouch for It Comes at Night and Hush as solid and/or bleak, though The Survivalist is a better version of the former's scenario, imo.

for a movie that seems to be being praised for eschewing many tired horror/thriller tropes, it employs, like, every one. but that's only the beginning of the argument against this.

SPOILERS

the point at which it completely lost me was when she was about to give birth (alone, because of course everyone would go off and do random things alone in this universe, that makes perfect sense and is perfectly logical) and she stumbled down the stairs and pierced her foot on a spike that was shown to the audience just moments earlier with great big flashing jazz lights saying "PAY ATTENTION TO THIS SPIKE IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT AND WILL FACTOR INTO THE PLOT VERY SOON". she could have just let out a scream because she's having a baby and it's fucking painful, but no, there needed to be a comedy foot piercing as well, because contrivance upon contrivance is how farce builds to a climax, and because the filmmakers don't trust their audience

Would it have won you back if everyone else also got their foot impaled on that nail despite frantic gesticulated warnings by an increasing pile of spike victims, till finally the cloverfield monster also gets spiked and that's how it dies, and the final shot of the movie is Jim taking a sharpie and answering his own big-lettered question, "WHAT IS ITS WEAKNESS?" with "TETANUS"?

yes that would do it

That is exactly what I was hoping for! That one after the other everyone steps on that nail until the monster does and then it dies of tetanus.

Anyway, there was some point this movie lost me, too, though I don't know if it was terrible. It's definitely annoying, though, the film equivalent of someone repeatedly sneaking up behind you and yelling in your ear.

Remember when, toward the end, when one of the kids reaches through the cornstalks to grab the other kid's ankle, because that is the best way to get someone's attention without startling them which might cause them to shriek and then get eaten by a monster which looks like Alien and sounds like Predator because why make a new one, anyway, the sound which should have accompanied that act, instead of the sound the filmmakers choose, which was something akin to a rubber mallet striking a wooden bench, should have been like gong or maybe a kittens meow, that would have been funny

My daughter pointed out how much it owed to Stranger Things, from the monster (already a riff on Aliens) to the lights (which were still clever here, along with the sand to silence paths, which almost made up for the white board with big red lettered "CREATURE! SOUND! NEED MEDICINE! WHAT IS ITS WEAKNESS!?!?" notes).

There were a couple almost metaphors swirling around in this wholly unsatisfying thing, though, including the idea of a deaf person essentially terrorized by even the prospect of sound, or, more broadly, the horrors of having children. I told my daughter it's like a dystopian parenthood movie, where you can finally convince your kids to shut up and be quiet because otherwise a monster will eat them. And then while they cower in terror you have a beer and read a book in peace.

You could practically smell the test audience religious bait, too. This is a family that stays together, prays together, and goddammit, has its baby, hardships be damned!

I'm sorry but why do they get pregnant under these circumstances? An I missing something? I can see replacing the youngest, but not in postapocalyptic monster world

cornstalks

intriguing that one of those monsters cold rustle loudly through the fields of corn and not attract other monsters

anyway

I liked this as a short lil genre exercise

but also like didn't anyone ever think about using abrasive high pitched sound before?? like of course something with super sensitive hearing is gonna have that be its weakness, that's comic book 101 type stuff

Also that a hearing aid could take down a giant ear monster.

the period between when the girl realized the hearing aid hurt the monster, and when she put it up to the mic, why did she continue to wear it if it hurt her?

and the way to kill the monsters is to thrust that hearing aid into a microphone rigged up to giant speakers, the existence of which in a world of COMPLETE MANDATORY SILENCE is the single fucking dumbest contrivance they could have come up with

she turned it off tbf. if she's thrown it away it would have been a horrible insult to her dad, who she deep down knows doesn't really hate her

who she deep down knows doesn't really hate her

don't even start me on that stupid fucking scene

giant speakers? small radio speakers in the sound-muffled basement iirc

but why are they there

Cmon all the nail was v obviously a Chekhov's Gun

yeah I loved the nail, and the combo of already-not-screaming-from-labour plus only-the-audience-know-about-the-nail.

movie that seems to be being praised for eschewing many tired horror/thriller tropes

anyone doing this is an idiot. I went in expecting some jump scares & a gimmick, movie delivered.

getting pregnant was the one looks-like-dumbshit activity that doesn't get explained later, and obv it is VERY dumbshit. let's assume he's been diligently c'ing on t's since the first kid got chomped, but she got preggers off pre-come.

thrust that hearing aid into a microphone rigged up to giant speakers

again iirc but it is not rigged to giant or indeed any speakers, she just creates high-frequency feedback in the hearing aid

and yet she continues to wear the hearing aid unnecessarily despite the pain it causes her, that was odd. She could have carried it in her pocket

again iirc but it is not rigged to giant or indeed any speakers, she just creates high-frequency feedback in the hearing aid

why is it there though

a microphone hooked up to tiny speakers in the same room, why

if anyone else is trying to find people alive via radio, he would need a microphone to respond to them

it's there to talk into

In The Survivalist, which is pretty hardcore, someone gets pregnant but no way do they carry it to term.

Honest question: where did all the basement water come from? I might have looked at my watch for a second, but I totally missed it. Hundreds of gallons of running water from ... where? The sink? Broken tank?

if anyone else is trying to find people alive via radio, he would need a microphone to respond to them

in the same room

...how else do you think it can work?

If you're talking to someone on the phone, do you have the microphone in one room, and the speaker in another, and you go from one room to the other depending on whether you are listening or speaking, but the two parts are also not connected to each other

yeah I was confused by the water s well, it seemed to be a broken pipe, but then to have taken no trouble at all to clear up. as though they had set it up as another defence mechanism, inspired by the waterfall.

...how else do you think it can work?

but why is there a microphone and speakers in a world in which a microphone and speakers will kill you

with this movie, why ask why, seriously

I have an irrational celebrity hatred of J Kras and this film just confirmed every possible suspicion of his psychic and intellectual constitution

with this movie, why ask why, seriously

true, in general i’m just sick of deus ex machina bullshit

but why is there a microphone and speakers

because Jim wants to find out that they are not the only functioning humans left alive in the world, and form a society!

in a world in which a microphone and speakers will kill you

in an elaborately soundproofed basement

it's not deus ex machina if it's set up throughout the film

ffs

it's absolutely a strength that the script keeps ramping up tension / frustration by doing things like "wtf why does he have all this radio stuff that makes sound," or "what the shit, why does he need to go to his offsite pitchfork stash when he had a shotgun earlier," and then later on showing you that the basement has been soundproofed as fuck in the course of revealing a whole series of other things about their preparation.

because Jim wants to find out that they are not the only functioning humans left alive in the world, and form a society!

The first time you see him light his fire beacon he sees all these other fire beacons being lit, so forget the rest of the world, he knows they're not the only one within a couple of square miles. Though the movie does imply that as usual in the apocalypse, other people are as much of a problem as the primary problem.

I like how they holed up in a house seemingly stacked top to bottom with rusty cans and the like. My first duty would be to quietly remove all the rusty cans and whatnot. Though I guess no one made any noise with all the clutter, so maybe it was precious clutter.

Early on, the deaf girl stares into the basement, turns on the light, then is about to take a few tentative steps down when Jim stops her and gets mad. "Don't go down there!" he signs, iirc. And she's all "why not?" And he's all "just don't." And I'm all "why not?" Is that where he keeps his radio? Is he just worried she'll start scanning for reception or something? Or does he know the radio, which makes noise, is dangerous? That and the flood, I totally missed something.

My family and I watched the sad "Andre the Giant" documentary last night, and needless to say both girls were perplexed. People actually watched this stuff? Why did they watch it if they knew it was fake? They are such bad actors, people watched this? And so on. And the best we came up with was, well, some people watched it to be entertained, not to be convinced it was "real," and it made me think of this movie, which we had just seen, and it made me consider that a movie doesn't have to be perfect to be good and doesn't have to make perfect sense and so on. Which is fair, and also why I stressed to my daughter that I don't know if this movie was necessarily bad, I just didn't like it. But it still doesn't excuse the directorial decision of accompanying every single jump scare with a HUGE LOUD NOISE which even my kid started to find repetitive and annoying, especially for a movie ostensibly about staying quiet, and definitely shows they did not have the courage of their convictions to let the tension work on its own and were hedging their bets.

Can I emphasize again how much I hated the triumphant ending, which rang totally false, given the horrific life this family had been living for over a year and the tragedy that had literally just taken their paterfamilias for no good reason? Another mystery: on his mostly unnecessary whiteboard, he had scribbled something like "number of monsters: 3, confirmed?" I guess those were just the territorial neighborhood monsters? Because clearly there are lots of monsters around, and they seem to be willing to hustle to any source of noise. (Though again, if a couple of woodchucks catch their ear, you'd think they'd get tired from all this aimless running around in search of every mouse fart.)

A bloodhound can track the path of a single individual through a high traffic area after 48 hours. An ear monster which looks like one giant cochlea can stand right in front of you and not hear your stifled breathing, or heartbeat, come now

I sort of suspected that they weren't eating people, they just had really sensitive hearing and were killing everything just to get some peace and quiet.

I think the movie turned for me the 20th time someone put their finger to their mouth to signal "shhhhh!" After a year of being stalked by ear monsters, you'd think "shhh" would be the default. Maybe finger to the lips means "extra shhhhh"?

lol same

ever been in a school cafeteria where the teachers tell the kids not to talk...how does that typically go?

the water in the basement thing was very clearly communicated btw how did you guys miss that

so what was it?

the monster damaged a pipe while it was looking for them, there's a slow pan to reveal it after John k leaves the barn

I remember the pan, I just didn't catch what precipitated it. would there even be running water over a year after all the sewage systems have been abandoned?

Nude with life-saving butt plug

all butt plugs are lifesavers tbf

Watched this yesterday. Love reading through these threads after the fact.

Remember when, toward the end, when one of the kids reaches through the cornstalks to grab the other kid's ankle, because that is the best way to get someone's attention without startling them which might cause them to shriek

Gonna venture a guess that that character has never shrieked in her life and is in fact entirely nonverbal. Clearly she speaks both English and ASL, but doesn't vocalize her English at all, just aspirates.

And all the convo upstream about speakers and microphones, good lord. THERE WERE NO SPEAKERS. There was a microphone and a pair of headphones. Krasinski was using them to search for responses to tapped out S.O.S. signals on all frequencies, using the minimum amount of noise he could. Just before she shoves the hearing aid into the mic, the girl cranks the headphones to their maximum volume.

and yet she continues to wear the hearing aid unnecessarily despite the pain it causes her, that was odd. She could have carried it in her pocket

It only causes her pain when one of the creatures is nearby, because they clearly give off some kind of EM signal/interference that causes a feedback loop. This is indicated by the lights also flickering any time the creatures are near. This is the movie trying to explain things to you. The rest of the time it does nothing at all, as indicated by her turning it on, snapping her fingers, and hearing nothing. Presumably she just leaves it on because, who knows, maybe it will work? Also presumably she figures it's just a glitch the first two times it causes her pain, and by the third time says "Fuck this nonsense." Only when she's cornered and watching the thing react to all the electronics downstairs -- and notice, once again, all the screens go from what they were originally displaying to white noise, because the things emit and react to EM interference -- does she realize what must have happened before.

Early on, the deaf girl stares into the basement, turns on the light, then is about to take a few tentative steps down when Jim stops her and gets mad. "Don't go down there!" he signs, iirc. And she's all "why not?" And he's all "just don't." And I'm all "why not?" Is that where he keeps his radio? Is he just worried she'll start scanning for reception or something? Or does he know the radio, which makes noise, is dangerous? That and the flood, I totally missed something.

Both because she's incapable of knowing if she's causing any noise down there, and because the electronics might interfere with her cochlear implant.

None of the characters in this movie would have survived more than a week under these particular dystopic conditions, let's just all be really real for a moment.

I don't think those giant ear monsters are real either

I don't mind movies being criticized for things that are criticisable, I mind criticisms of things that are explained within the movie's internal logic! My big thing is that the time period encompassed by the onscreen titles, from Day 89 to Day 472 or whatever, must necessarily have encompassed an upstate New York winter. How did they keep from making noise walking in the snow? How and when did they plant all that corn in perfect rows? How and when did they fill the silo? Those don't make any sense at all according to the film's logic.

Oh! And:

Don't power stations / waterworks / fucking *printing presses* make noise?

They have solar panels on the house in a couple of shots, although powering that amount of electronics seems ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

One of the newspapers in the basement, the New York Post with the headline "It's Sound!," is the same paper still on the rack in town at the beginning of the movie on Day 89, so presumably the printing presses didn't run for very long.

Every time this movie comes up, I forget the title because it's so forgettable, and the substitute title which pops into my head is Be Vewwy, Vewwy Quiet! Which I think is a much better title.

There should be a sequel "A Pleasant-Smelling Place" where the monsters are triggered by the odor of methane gas

Get ready for a sequel.

“IT’S SOUND!” is my favourite thing in this film, I bet the post got a lot of letters going “oh you mean the ear monsters (that are made of ears) can hear sound? Ya fuckin think so?”

it seemed too obvious maybe

i'd only be interested in watching this movie if it was nude john krasinski farting the whole time

― macropuente (map), Friday, 26 October 2018 02:36 (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nude with life-saving butt plug

― the dutiful and the banned (rip van wanko), Friday, 26 October 2018 02:39 (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

all butt plugs are lifesavers tbf

― macropuente (map), Friday, 26 October 2018 02:39 (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In 1931, the Life Savers "Cough Drop" was introduced with menthol but it was not successful.

The nude-farting-Krasinski writer's room upthread was great.

Just saw this btw.

“IT’S SOUND!” is my favourite thing in this film, I bet the post got a lot of letters going “oh you mean the ear monsters (that are made of ears) can hear sound? Ya fuckin think so?”

― coetzee.cx (wins), Monday, October 29, 2018 2:44 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the implied series of events here are that these creatures are suddenly attacking a world that is noisy by default, so it's not that crazy to assume that the press is hoping to broadcast exactly the way in which these monsters are hunting. The early days of this universe would be these things just running around everywhere and their tracking method would not be as obvious in that chaos, given how quickly they respond.

"Yeah, this'll work" attitude towards fast approaching birth took me out of the story the most, not that they seemed super confident, but echoing some similar thoughts upthread perhaps maybe they could have voicedwhispered more concern instead of say slow dancing (or during!) just so the audience doesn't feel quite so much like "how are they not addressing that this is impossible? A crying newborn?"

Otherwise some of the misconceptions upthread make me feel good about myself, like I'm some kind of master detail absorber and never realized it. Game of Thrones threads make me feel that way too.

they were planning to give birth by the waterfall, right? i mean, they didn't have a great contingency plan...

WHY DIDN'T THEY LIVE NEXT TO THE WATERFALL

the damp kept messing up the giant speakers

WHY DIDN'T THEY LIVE NEXT TO THE WATERFALL

A White Noisy Place (2018)

those poor children, the only thing they were allowed to play on the piano was John Cage's "4'33"

This was dumb as shit, wtf everybody

jim's pullout game must've been very weak

tbf, emily blunt, etc etc

This was dumb as shit, wtf everybody

shakey otm.

so we have to believe that this things have defeated every army across the globe but they end up vulnerable to a single shotgun blast. why didn't the family live in the basement? or attempt to soundproof their house in any way or even close the fucking doors? or have some remotely operated noisemakers set up around the farm? i nearly screamed when they put the baby in the box - and then they sit there calmly chatting and not freaking out that they've had to put their baby in a fucking sealed box. and then the leak - it looked like at least 10,000 litres of water down there, that must have been one giant pipe that got broken.

i've seen both of these and didn't love either. didn't hate them either. the premise doesn't hold up to scrutiny but that isn't what doesn't make the film work, cos lots of horror doesn't. it's just that in terms of apocalyptic horror, it does one thing over and over again, and doesn't do it particularly well.

and the indicating kills me. do we need an overdramatic finger over the mouth every time someone is telling someone else to be quiet?

things that would get you killed, in my estimation:

1) farting/pooping
2) coughing
3) sneezing
4) peeing
5) snoring
6) talking in sleep
7) literally any squirrel playing outside your house
8) sex
9) pushing someone in a wheelchair

The hand mouth finger move, though overused, the more I think about it the more I think it is VERY necessary

yes I am trying really hard to be quoted out of context

And to your point about the squirrels, they had a jump scare in the second film with a bunch of birds that fly away suddenly. Now birds flying away wouldn't be as loud as they are in a movie that is trying to use that moment to scare you, but yeah that should have still been enough to summon a decibelgorgon.

The thing that bothers me the most is when there is a noise trap or an accident that creates noise- the characters go "jig's up!" and run. I have no idea why they run. Shouldn't they just move away from the noise object immediately and then stand still? The thing is going to come smack the source of the noise (why do they seem to just smack things that make noise? Are they hunting or just pissed off?) and then it will simply move along, right? The noise of running tips them off pretty good. I couldn't tell if they were supposed to have any other way of detecting people, but maybe that was made obvious at some point. I forget. But maybe that's why it's not worth staying quiet anymore?

heh i was wondering about that too.

esp since these things seem to be light-speed fast once alerted

Second film felt very much like episodes 4 and 5 of the third series of some interminable Walking Dead type show.

Yikes wouldn't go that far, but they did abandon the fun nobody-talks element so it did seem way more generic in that sense. Will say it did feel way more akin to modern survival console story games like Last Of Us 2 etc. Maybe that sounds even worse, but Walking Dead is a pretty dismal comparison these days.

Tbf, I did say third series not eleventh series

I read this thread for a little while before I realized it wasn't about the Emily Dickinson biography by Terence Davies.

Why is 90% of horror just dumb garbage?

Um, Theodore Sturgeon to thread?