When dropping a lantern can kill you, it’s better to put away all of the delicate china and porcelain decorations. Chances are any and all of those pretty things can be a killer.

A Quiet Place starts at a desolate store where a family of five – parents Lee (John Krasinski) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt – Krasinski’s real wife) with their three children, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and Beau (Cade Woodward) – are moving bare-footed, gathering supplies in complete silence. A title card says: 89 days. The family talks in sign language (it is later reveal that they have this skill from before because of their hearing-impaired daughter). From the store, the youngest wants a toy spaceship, but even at the mere sight of the toy, tension and fear takes over the adults faces. They take the batteries out and discourage him from taking it. Being a child, he takes it with the batteries and on their way home – a farm house in a small town – he puts in the batteries. The toy makes a most generic toy sound, and as soon as it does, he is taken by a fast moving creature. That was the last the family saw of the child.

After a year the family is still surviving on the farm, with Evelyn pregnant and ready for birth. From the paper clippings, it is explained that the world is overrun with creatures that are blind, fast and strong with ultra-keen hearing. So even with the slightest sound, be it glass breaking or things falling, or whispered conversations, they’ll be at the source in seconds. A baby’s arrival in mere months, is a situation worth worrying about.

Tense, well-planned and executed, A Quiet Place is the best you can expect from a horror survival thriller (ala. the classic Alien and Dawn of the Dead).

Directed and screenplay co-written by John Krasinski (of The Office and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi), this in his third feature and a first in this genre. Krasinski weaves the narrative with a sensitive and stable hand. With most of the film without dialogues, he makes the audience lean-in and watch every movement on the actors face and gestures. When you are this close, you feel every slight emotional tug and pull of the family.

Running at 95 minutes, the film establishes the ground realities and stays close to it. It does not explore what the creatures are and why are they here – it’s just not that film. It’s a plain and simple one about protecting one’s family. •