MOVIES: "A QUIET PLACE"

The new horror film, "A Quiet Place," sets forth a unique, promising and engaging world. A rural family with young children finds itself in the midst of an invasion of creatures who track and kill their victims by sound. It's absolutely necessary that this family lives their lives in utter and encompassing silence. So, is this, er, a "silent film"? Kind of! There's sign language and subtitles, handmotions and reading of lips, and a few special places where the creatures can't hear the spoken word. Makes you really pay attention.

In "A Quiet Place," John Krazinski directs himself and his wife, Emily Blunt--as they play the  beleaguered couple & parents who make the best of their nightmarish existence with love, smiles, and finding ways to make life feel normal for their kids. You can only imagine the survival gymnastics that happen  when a new, noisy baby is born into the midst of this tomb-like silence!

My one beef with "A Quiet Place" is the monsters. Is it just me, or do all movie monsters now look almost exactly alike? About 6 feet tall, they're fast and move on super-long limbs with a kind of crouching gait, boxy heads that look like huge exposed granite skulls--and those mouths with which they screech and roar that always look like gooey strands of taffy is being pulled inside of them. I mean, EVERY single monster? Really, they're more laughable than frightening.

"A Quiet Place" works well and was rated a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. And aside from the ridiculous monsters, I also wanted a few more plot twists. But it's a good, family friendly, scary romp.