Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

A Quiet Place 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 30, 2018

Monsters and mayhem and bloodshed and brutality may a Horror movie make, but even the most grisly amongst them is nothing without a connection between the acts of violence on the screen, the victims suffering through them, and the audience watching from the safety of the theater or home. Director John Krasinski's A Quiet Place makes that connection in a film of survival and sacrifice in a world that has fallen into silence following an alien invasion, invaders whose sense of hearing is their only biological building block that's sharper than their teeth and claws. A grim but gloriously absorbing film in the tradition of M. Night Shyamalan with hints of The Road and 10 Cloverfield Lane, A Quiet Place is a masterful Horror experience that eschews significant violent visuals and traditional dialogue in favor of the terrors a family faces while on the verge of tearing apart with every misstep, each accidentally muttered syllable, any minor increase in volume that could take one, or all, of the frail and fragile survivors whose only strength is the bonds of blood shared amongst them.

The world has fallen into ruin and it has fallen into silence. Alien invaders, highly sensitive to sound and willingly slaughtering anything -- living or otherwise -- that makes sound, have culled the human population. The film follows the Abbot family, on the move and fighting to survive: father Lee (John Krasinski), mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt), deaf daughter Reagan (Millicent Simmonds), and son Marcus (Noah Jupe). As the family copes with tragedy, exists in silence, and struggles to understand and survive the decaying world around it, every step becomes a potential siren, each syllable a possible death sentence, any action likely to call down a terrible fate.

A Quiet Place is a film of family and a film of survival. The specifics of the world's state -- what the invaders want, how many have arrived, how few humans remain -- is insignificant to the story. This is a microcosm film in which the family unit is all that matters. It's not how they have adapted, not how they have survived, not where they are, not what they have, not of which they dream that matters: it's only that they're together, that they're all-in to come through, or at least survive as long as they can. The film deliberately leaves the backstory vague and the family's future prospects hazy. It's concerned with their immediate survival. There's no starting point and there's no end in sight. It's about the everyday in a new world, and it doesn't matter how or why it has come to be as it is. The audience will quickly attach to the family with an emotional current that's born of tragedy and developed with time and of watching as the only thing that has not deteriorated is the love they share for one another, perhaps best exemplified in a scene in which Lee and Evelyn share a slow dance with shared earbuds their only source for music.

The film's action scenes are tense and tight, personal and intimate. The juxtaposition of deadly creatures and frightened, silent individuals where the only defense is sometimes stillness and silent prayer makes for terrifying imagery. But this isn't just a Tremors clone. Noise can be used as a distracting weapon, but it is often something to be muffled, to be quickly removed from the equation, and only deliberately utilized as a last resort. One of the most haunting, almost dire, plot points throughout the movie is Evelyn's pregnancy. How will the family deal with the baby’s arrival and the birthing pains that will surely come…and the months of uncontrollable screaming that are sure to follow? In the world depicted in A Quiet Place, life’s greatest blessing may be its greatest curse. It's a simple thought but a major complication that adds a remarkable intensity to the movie when it's top of mind and foreboding even when it's not. The film generates fear from a number of other sources. It's not afraid of danger, it's not afraid of loss, it's not afraid to portray its world as a dark place where silence is the only hope for survival, even when silence is not an option.

The cast is terrific. John Krasinski, who both directs and plays one of the film's lead characters, excels as the family's figurehead, a man who has not come to fully understand the new world but who certainly has a firm grasp of its new dynamics and what it takes, and what it means, to defend his family. But even as the rock, it's the unpredictabilities -- and even the predictable moments, sometimes -- that place all he holds dear in great danger. Emily Blunt is terrific as his pregnant wife. She wears loss, pain, and doubt on her face, but an inner strength manifests throughout the film that carries the character forward following several major plot turns. Millicent Simmonds, an actress deaf in real life, and Noah Jupe carry the film as the children who are forced to grow up quickly but who still hold the past pains close to their hearts and struggle with the fear of the unknown. Creature effects are a strength. They're unique and frightening in build, clearly alien, and very deadly. The film takes its time in fully revealing them.

A Quiet Place 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

A Quiet Place's 2160p/Dolby Vision-enhanced presentation can be said to be mildly to modestly better than the 1080p Blu-ray, but better all the same. The Blu-ray delivers a significantly strong and very refined presentation considering textural quality and colors alike. The UHD refines the image and, while there's not a significant boost to either, the improvements are often readily evident. And they are sometimes hard to spot.

The movie looks very good on the 4K format. Like the Blu-ray, it's mildly, but evenly and texturally critically, grainy. Core details are nicely revealed and refined. Skin and clothes offer intimate revelatory qualities while the various environments -- a deserted grocery store, wooded paths, a semi run-down home interior -- are all exceptionally sharp. The Dolby Vision color enhancement offers the standard stable of improvements, including increasingly dense but still very detailed blacks, more brilliant and cleaner whites, and a host of more finely saturated and nuanced shades.

The image is sometimes a step above the Blu-ray and sometimes not all that different. A shot looking down a deserted street at the beginning of the movie, less than a minute in, offers a good example of the UHD's superiority over the Blu-ray. Sharpness is much more obvious on storefronts, the road, and the distant trees. Colors are more intense, with much better whites and a more realistic array of fall foliage in the background. On the other hand, some scenes don't see much of a forward jump. Take a scene featuring Lee and Marcus near a stream in chapter six. There's a very slight increase to color vibrance and a tick better detail, but that's the extent of the difference between the two formats. The same can be said of a shot of a red lightbulb at the 45:51 mark. Whether the condensation on it or the red color, there's just not much of a difference to be seen. The UHD is definitely a little better in both areas -- the condensation is a little more clear, the color is a little more vibrant -- but this not a leaps-and-bounds improvement. A great image, yes, and the UHD is superior and without technical flaw; it's just not an eye-opening revelation over a first-rate Blu-ray, even shot on film but reportedly finished at 2K.

A Quiet Place 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Quiet Place is a film of great sonic interest, even if that doesn't always translate into great sonic intensity. But it does, as it needs. The film opens with little footsteps and the trace sound of a crayon scribbling on the floor. Characters communicate in sign language, and the most insignificant, hushed sound can be vital to their survival, or a misstep that could cost them dearly. Silence is necessary through much of the film, and gentle support nuance can become a sonic focal point, which the Atmos track delivers with impressive placement and clarity, even at whisper-quiet levels. The track can get so quiet, at times, that ambient sound in the home theater -- like a running air conditioner -- can get in the way of any given scene's silent intensity. Modest winds blow about, light rustling leaves define the countryside, and floating papers blow around abandoned towns. These can be essential, mood- and environment-shaping sounds, elevated well beyond traditional sound roles in other films, but not amplified. Six minutes in and music does enter the track: it's fluid, light, and well spaced. On the other hand, particularly later on in the movie, music can be heart-pounding and intense, enveloping a large portion of the listening area. It's reproduced with pure fidelity, a deep low end component, and exceptional placement. The same can be said of alien creature effects, which are bold and powerful, with rushing intensity through the surrounds. But it's those environmental details that really come to tell the story. Something like creaking wood floors can portend so much and drive the narrative well beyond sound elements of much greater intensity. Even rushing waters that mask a brief dialogue exchange flow through the stage with so much richness and fluidity that the listener feels instantly transported to the location and alongside the characters. Dialogue delivery, what little there is, plays with good clarity and positioning. Lip sync was a problem at the 58:27 mark. It was more or less remedied with a full stop and resume of the film.

A Quiet Place 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

A Quite Place's UHD disc contains no extras, but the bundled Blu-ray contains three featurettes. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Reading the Quiet -- Behind the Scenes of A Quiet Place (1080p, 14:45): A discussion of the original script, the film's construction around a general absence of dialogue, shooting locations, the benefits of Krasinski's work as both actor and director, additional casting and performances including how Krasinski's and Blunt's real-life marriage played into the movie, on-set friendships, and more.
• The Sound of Darkness -- Editing Sound for A Quiet Place (1080p, 11:44): Dealing with the challenges of making a movie with minimal dialogue and the importance of sound design, silence on the set, the technical challenges in the mixing booth, alien sound effects (including some interesting temporary audio cues), and Marco Beltrami's score.
• A Reason for Silence -- The Visual Effects of A Quiet Place (1080p, 7:33): Designing the alien creature: influences, evolution, and biological specifics. It also looks at motion capture support.

A Quiet Place 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A Quiet Place is a gripping, intense film. Its focus is on its characters and their struggles. It's not about the past (beyond anything depicted in the film) and it's not about the future. It's not about hows or whys. It's a snapshot of terror in a devastated world where sound calls down almost certain death. Don't be fooled by the PG-13 rating. This is a superior Horror film that allows emotions, not bloodshed, and characters, not gore, to shape the tale. It's a wonderful film and one of the genre's best in recent years. Paramount's UHD is very good. Video and audio are essentially without flaw, though fans looking for an image substantially better than a significantly good Blu-ray may be disappointed. Supplements are few in number but decently informative. Very highly recommended.