Director: John Krasinski
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
With humanity in ruins, a family living in a remote farmhouse away from the rest of civilization realize that the creatures who have attacked and killed the rest of the world ave found them and invaded their existence forcing them to come together and drive them away from their home.
Review:
This was quite the extraordinarily enjoyable film. One of the most amazing aspects of this one is the fact that there's an incredibly immersive atmosphere and universe at play within the film. This particular universe, inhabited by monstrous creatures that hunt on strange sounds so they have to remain in set patterns with routines that don't involve making sound, creates such a wholesale unfamiliar universe that diving into what's at store here is quite exciting. The normality with which they live their lives is quite refreshing, aware of such finer aspects including walking barefoot over sand trails, using carpets to walk around inside or avoiding simple things like opening or closing doors which are a staple of everyday life that are ignored in here.
That leads into the film's action scenes generating quite an intriguing air about them as the suspense with which they work on is driven by several factors. Not only is the concept of strange bipedal humanoid creatures that hunt based on sound thrilling enough on it's own merits, the fact that in this particular universe the way of live for the people involved must be carried out in that fashion around the existence of such creations leads to some absolutely stellar sequences with them racing to get their devices shut off or trying to catch various chain reactions that would lead to sound being uttered which would've alerted the creatures. That leads to plenty of chilling and somewhat creepier encounters here than imagined due to this universe being built up.
That leaves the actual horror scenes in here incredibly chilling and fun. From the stalking in the house where they have to prevent the creatures from noticing the contraptions around the house as they sneak away to give birth in the sound-proof room, a fantastic sequence out in the cornfields where they must evade the creatures as well as trying to rescue a trapped member at the same time as well as the stellar sequence inside the house where they have to take the risks of getting to safety with the creatures attacking nearby, these are all fine enough action scenes which create some thrilling moments along the way. With fantastic-looking creatures and a nice addition of truly engaging emotional resonance, this is a rather fun film without too much really wrong with it.
About the only real flaw in this one is the fact that there's just not much given here at all about the creatures. They look cool enough and considering all the scenes with them are convincing enough that inferring everything from them should come pretty easily, that's still all the general information we end up getting here about what they are or where they came from, what their purpose is or anything, and since it's all inference there's so much confusion wrapped around what they're supposed to be that it leaves a few question marks about them. The film could also use a bit more action in the first half as that would've provided this one with a bit more creature fun to offset some of the family drama that crops up but those are minor nitpicks that are more personal preference than anything to do with the film.
Overview: *****/5
An overall stellar and especially enjoyable entry that really doesn't have much wrong with it, the main feature that ends up holding it down are purely quibbles in an otherwise engaging effort. This is truly an unmissable genre effort for just about everyone out there who considers themselves fans or aficionados while only those looking for less cerebral and action-packed efforts will not care about this one.
Comments
Post a Comment