The concept of a film dominated by long periods of silence may not be incredibly original (an episode of "Buffy" once adopted such a premise), but it's original enough to offer something different in the thriller/horror landscape IF your script doesn't simply use the concept as a gimmick.
Unfortunately, "A Quiet Place" never does aspire to justify its plot beyond the selling factor of being somewhat original, and that's the problem: it knows you don't often get films like this, it knows you know that, and therefore the writer never feels he has to try too hard.
It may be too cynical to say that all one need do is insert a cliche family into a world where sound kills, develop a bare minimum of familial drama (mostly conveyed via sign language), and then simply devise scenarios where they get into trouble, but yet that's exactly what the film does. That's, essentially, all the film IS: set pieces hinging on borderline fleshed-out members of a family trying their best to be quiet in a world where monsters hunt by sound.
That's not to say the film doesn't have genuine moments of suspense--it does. But one can't help escape the fact that nearly any writer with a modicum of imagination could easily devise twenty or a hundred more scenarios where characters inadvertently make noise and bring the wrath of hungry creatures down on them. We LIVE in a world with sound, so the highest level of imagination one has to have to write these situations is to imagine their characters trying and failing to perform ordinary human tasks quietly, or, as this film often relies on, reacting to physical pain.
By all means, go see it for the suspenseful set pieces, but don't be deluded into thinking it's more than the sum of its parts.
Unfortunately, "A Quiet Place" never does aspire to justify its plot beyond the selling factor of being somewhat original, and that's the problem: it knows you don't often get films like this, it knows you know that, and therefore the writer never feels he has to try too hard.
It may be too cynical to say that all one need do is insert a cliche family into a world where sound kills, develop a bare minimum of familial drama (mostly conveyed via sign language), and then simply devise scenarios where they get into trouble, but yet that's exactly what the film does. That's, essentially, all the film IS: set pieces hinging on borderline fleshed-out members of a family trying their best to be quiet in a world where monsters hunt by sound.
That's not to say the film doesn't have genuine moments of suspense--it does. But one can't help escape the fact that nearly any writer with a modicum of imagination could easily devise twenty or a hundred more scenarios where characters inadvertently make noise and bring the wrath of hungry creatures down on them. We LIVE in a world with sound, so the highest level of imagination one has to have to write these situations is to imagine their characters trying and failing to perform ordinary human tasks quietly, or, as this film often relies on, reacting to physical pain.
By all means, go see it for the suspenseful set pieces, but don't be deluded into thinking it's more than the sum of its parts.