Ask parents what they fear most and they’ll probably say it hurts their children.
We care about protecting our children from pornography. We care about protecting them from sexual abusers. We care about protecting them from violence. How can we preserve their innocence, secure their peace, and protect them from pain?As parents, we are formed, at least in part, by the way we answer these questions. And we are judged, mainly by our conscience, by the way we react when we do not protect them.
- This universal fear of parents is at the heart of A Quiet Place.
- A new film in which a mother raises the deepest existential question openly imagined in a horror film: “Who are we if we can’t protect our children?”.
Although A Quiet Place is one of the most exciting films of 2018, you may be tempted to avoid it out of contempt for the horror genre, which is understandable, because there are few film genres that show little quality when it comes to terror. However, there is a reason, as Mike Duran recently noted in an article, why the genre remains popular. “As Christians, we must certainly be cautious and discern when we approach the kind of terror,” Durán said, “but perhaps we can also consider how their continued popularity reflects a sense of morality, mortality, and our need. Until dawn bleeds, they are intuitive and god-given.
What makes terror unique is that it’s an emotion-based genre. At the most basic level, does a movie meet the requirements of the genre, if it causes a sense of horror?An intense feeling of fear, fear or discontent. Most horror movies want to spark that excitement, which is why so many horror movies are instantly forgotten. Since they have no intention but to provoke a temporary physiological response, most horror films are forgotten as soon as fear disappears and our blood pressure returns to normal.
On the other hand, the most effective and memorable horror films are almost always spiritual allegories. As Dwight Longenecker says: the horror genre answers the question: “How can literature and film handle spiritual realities very effectively?”
Horror films envelop us in the psychological and spiritual drama of facing evil. In horror movies, evil is not simply human fragility or the quest to defeat a common villain. East force hardly wears many masks. He can be a person distorted by the experiences of a mad scientist, he can be an unimaginable monster from another planet, he can be a psychopathic criminal or a madman who kills a lot with chainsaws. Whatever mask he wears, the villain represents what he is. demonic It is he who makes darkness visible, and when the hero engages in the great battle, we follow him on the journey and thus face inner terror.
What makes the film A Quiet Place so appealing is that it forces us to face the primitive terror of fatherhood: how can we protect our children from the demonic forces trying to steal their innocence?
A Quiet Place has a unique feature in the monster movie category. The story begins in the media, without an explanation of what monsters are or what happened to the rest of humanity. We know that there are still other people, but with a brief exception. , the only people featured in the film are members of the Abbott family: Lee, the father (played by director John Krasinski); his wife, Evelyn (played by Krasinski’s wife, Emily Blunt); his deaf daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds); and their two young children, Marcus (Noah Skirt) and Beau (Cade Woodward).
The Abbott family lives in a barn on a secluded farm and tries to live as quietly as possible. Family members almost never speak in a tone beyond a whisper and make great efforts to avoid the slightest noise. The reason, they warn us, is that monsters hunt attracted by sound. Each sound above a few decibels puts the whole family in danger of death because of the predators they always hear.
Since cinema is a visual medium, horror films often deal with our fear of darkness and a desire to hide from danger, but cinema is also a hearing medium and Um Silent Place brilliantly conveys the emotional resonance of silence. The place?literally a quiet place?is extremely harder than hiding from view. The depiction of this reality in the film, especially in a world with children, increases psychological tension to an almost unbearable level.
For example, when it is revealed that Evelyn is in the latter stages of pregnancy, I was initially amazed at the courage and hope it took to give birth to a child in such a dangerous world, but then I was literally terrified when I realized the magnitude of the task almost impossible to keep a baby silent (a partial solution presented by Evelyn is ingenious and claustrophobic).
A quiet place has received well-deserved reviews. The gameplay and staging are excellent and the sound design is extraordinarily effective. However, it is this simple and ubiquitous allegorical issue of protecting children from harm that is likely to resonate in the public.
Most critics acknowledge that the film is about fatherhood, but few have made the connection to Christian spiritual realities in the film. “It’s one of the most implicitly Christian films I’ve ever seen, although no critic seems to have noticed it. “says economist and scholar Tyler Cowen. ” Think of monasticism, demons, baby Moses, reluctance to consider abortion as an option, grain silos, and (underestimated) Film Signs of Shyamalan. “
A Quiet Place, as Cowen argues, is it an implicitly Christian film?
Before I respond, I must confess that I disagree with the popular approach of Christian film criticism in search of “redemptive themes. “Often the subject? Present in secular works is nothing more than the use of a particular metaphor (i. e. a common or overused theme) such as “death and resurrection” (i. e. , the hero approaches death but is resurrected in battle) or one?Figure of Christ ? (where a character is said to be similar to Jesus in a generally unusual way). Any moderately competent director can make Satan a “figure of Christ,” but that in itself does not give the film a “redeemer” theme.
So what does it take for a film to be “Christian,” either implicitly or explicitly?
As Gene Veith explains: “Every clearly Christian art must, in a sense, face the agonizing struggle between sin and grace. “To be “Christian,” a work must focus, directly or indirectly, on sin and grace and Christ’s relationship with them.
Based on these criteria, A Quiet Place is not “Christian”, although there are indications in the film that the Abbott family is Christian. However, the film represents common aspects of grace and morality that can only make sense in a created world. Abbott resists in prayer and hope, without letting fear control their lives, they rely on love and forgiveness to help them in times of tragedy, depend on love and dedication to each other to fight evil, and finally discover that it is grace and dedication that can save them. In this sense, A Quiet Place is one of the most Christian horror films you can see.
Alert to the viewer: Although I highly recommend it, A Silent Place aims to evoke intense feelings of fear, dread or discontent (like all horror films). Bloodshed is minimal. In fact, the most horrible and bloody scene, and the only time I needed to look away, is when a character walks on a nail (fortunately, there’s a warning before this happens). Monsters are scary and equivalent to the movie. “Extraterrestrial. ” So, if you have a fragile constitution, this movie may not be for you. The film is classified as “Very Smart Parents? For (mainly) non-graphic violence. There are no swear words or nudity. Overall, I would say it is suitable for older teens and adults, although it is certainly not recommended for young children.