The sound of silence

Theatregoers aggressively mum as A Quiet Place makes noise at box office

It’s always annoying to have people around you at the movies rustling bags, crunching popcorn and slurping down soda. But with one new movie, it’s not just irritating. It’s practically deafening.

The noise itself is no louder than usual. The problem is the movie. It’s quiet. Really quiet. Crunch at your own risk. Last week, John Krasinski debuted his horror thriller film A Quiet Place, and in this case the title accurately reflects the viewing experience.

Save for the rare scream and some soft music, most of the film is silent. It follows the lives of the Abbotts, a family led by Krasinski and the actor’s real-life spouse Emily Blunt, as they try to navigate a world overrun by monsters who hunt by noise. The only chance for human survival is remaining silent.

That means any real-life sound, whether it’s popcorn being chewed or the theatre’s air conditioning running, seems all the louder.

When 20-year-old Jade Vendivel went to the theatre with her roommate, she told The Washington Post she thought they were just going to be watching “another scary movie.”

Vendivel admitted she was wrong, describing a theatre that went “dead silent” after the previews ended.

“It got to the point where I could only put a piece of popcorn in my mouth every 10 minutes whenever the sound would get high enough,” said Vendivel, who lives in Los Angeles.

“Even then, I would have to hold the popcorn in my mouth until it was soft enough to chew without making any noise.”

She added she even had to muffle her own gasps with a blanket she brought to the theatre.

“There was one particular scene where it zooms in on John Krasinski’s face when he’s trying to tell his children to be quiet and I fully stuffed the blanket into my mouth,” she said.

The film’s producers noticed viewers weren’t touching their popcorn during screenings, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“People feel they need to be quiet,” one of the producers, Brad Fuller said.

“It’s like mob rule — if someone starts crunching loudly, the rest of the theatre is going to go after them.”