A different kind of silent movie.

John Krasinski is probably best known for his portrayal of Jim Halpert in the US version of The Office, but he’s also risen through the ranks of film – with this his third directing credit.

A Quiet Place focuses around one couple and their three children in the aftermath of some sort of attack. You quickly learn that deadly monsters are lurking, sensitive to sound, but that staying quiet – and alive – isn’t all that easy.

Krasinski also takes a starring role with his wife, Emily Blunt, and they play the lead couple – you can see a natural chemistry between them, despite them not having too much time to spend together. The kids are reasonable actors, too, not the kind you are willing to die throughout, and the roles aren’t gender stereotyped either; the girl wants to learn and follow her father, while the boy is petrified and wants to stay home to look after his mum.

Is this film scary? I’d say it’s more tense than scary, though the blood and monsters earn it a 15 rating for good reason. You don’t see the monsters in full for a good little while, leaving you wondering, the film playing on your fear of the unknown. But the it also knows it can’t run on that fear for the whole 90 minutes, and presents a fairly mediocre monster. This is better than films like The Happening though, where there is never a physically manifested threat, and in fairness the concept of highly sound-sensitive monsters, coupled with super speed, does make you genuinely tense. There is nothing worse than not having a villain or a threat revealed, all under some pretentious notion which you know is only disguising a lack of imagination.

‘This one will have you squeezing the hand of the person next to you – even if you don’t know them’

The film is helped largely because it is so short, offering just a snapshot into this world where it appears this family aren’t the sole survivors, but where they are certainly the only focus for us. Life is lived in utter silence, a complete shift from our world of non-stop communication and chatter, which is enough of an original idea to hang this vignette on. No explanation is given for the appearance of the creatures, and while there are some clunky newspaper headlines to fill in blanks about how people learned to survive, you are left to ponder the world more anything. This works both for and against the film. It’s a positive because you aren’t bogged down in lore or grandiose plots to save the world, but it is a negative because it leaves large holes unanswered – particularly at the very end.

I came away with questions, but with a great deal of appreciation for the brevity of the story. There is just enough character set-up to make you care for the family, even if you don’t wholly invest in them, while the concept of having to live silently is tantalising. Will they manage it? Surely not, you tell yourself, afraid to rustle your snacks. It’s the kind of concept which would have made a great X-Files episode or Cloverfield Netflix-drop, but is stretched well enough.

I’ve not seen either of his previous two films, so can’t say much for Krasinski’s style. This if filmed in a fairly unfussy manner, with the odd jump-scare to keep you on edge. All the tension comes from the waiting – did the monsters hear that dropped item? The lingering image you’ll take away is a bearded Krasinski shushing you with his finger to his lips, when really it should be the monsters. After the film, the impact wears off and you might not recall much specifically from your enjoyment, so we’re probably not talking about a classic here, just a really enjoyable watch.

About those monsters: In the end they’re generic looking, not the kind of thing to haunt you for years, like The Gentlemen from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The CGI isn’t awful, but the design lacks a distinctive style.

You could say this film is ambitious in concept, but not in execution, but it’s hard to know whether the limitations were set on purpose or whether they are just the actual limitations of the team involved. For that reason, you have to take it all on face value, and for a short, thoroughly entertaining horror-thriller-monster movie, I came away pretty pleased. Not many films grab your attention and keep it for a full 90 minutes, but this one did and will have you squeezing the hand of the person next to you – even if you don’t know them.

I’d like to know more about the world set up here, but really, any sequel could ruin the tension derived from the limited focus; it’s one of those things best left alone for the risk of tainting it.