THE SILENT TREATMENT沉默是金
How one actor moved from The Office to horror. By KEVIN MA由主演劇集《The Office》到執導恐怖片的John Krasinski。撰文：馬樂民
In the early days of cinema, films were silent. Visuals, not dialogue, drove those stories. With A Quiet Place, director and actor John Krasinski honours the art of visual storytelling through a horror film in which survival depends on suppressing sound.
Viewers will most likely know Krasinski as affable Jim in the US version of TV comedy The Office. But since then, he’s taken on a mix of dramatic and comedic roles, and made his directorial debut in 2016 with family dramedy
The Hollars. A Quiet Place is similarly about family dynamics – but with a terrifying premise.
Unlike many other horror films,
A Quiet Place forgoes convoluted mythmaking, instead presenting a simple, little-explained scenario: the world has been taken over by aliens with extrasensitive hearing, and anyone who makes a sound will be hunted and killed.
This reality is revealed in a frightening manner in the opening sequence. In what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world, a family of five – led by Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, as the parents – loot an abandoned supermarket and walk in the woods in total silence. Things seem to be going swimmingly until we hear the blaring of a child’s toy. The aliens spring into action, and what follows sets an ominous tone for things to come.
A year later, the family is living on a rural farm, still reeling from the trauma of the attack. We get to see the details of how they live out their mostly silent existence, communicating in sign language and soundproofing everything in their home. Mundane moments of everyday life create a large part of the drama in the film, in which every sound can become a plot point. While in most horror films silence creates suspense and prompts audiences to brace themselves for the next jump scare, in A Quiet Place silence signals calm and a sense of safety.
Krasinski, whose second child was born just months before he read the script, has said that it was the story’s message about the empowering strength of parenthood – not its horror elements – that drew him to the project. Those who were expecting to get sweaty palms from the suspense might instead find themselves with teary eyes by the film’s end.
早期的電影都是默片，沒有對白，單靠畫面來推動劇情。《無聲絕境》講述一群人必須不發半點聲音方能保命的，故事 是導演兼演員 John Krasinski 藉恐怖片來向以畫面敘的事 藝術致敬之作。
觀眾對 Krasinski 的，印象 應該是來自電視劇集《The Office》美版國 中那個平易近人的。Jim 不過自《The Office》之後，他亦演出過多個喜劇與非喜劇的，角色 並於2016 年首次成為導演，執導惹笑又感人的家庭劇《The Hollars》《。無聲絕境》也同樣是關於家人相處之道，但劇中人卻要面對一個可怕的。處境
《無聲絕境》有別於其他恐怖片，沒有什麼折曲 日奇的詭異情節，只提出一個簡單直接、背景近乎空的白 故事：地球被一群對聲音極度敏的感 異星生物佔領，任何人只要發出一點聲音就會被追殺。
電影開始時以一種令人心驚膽跳的方式將這個現實呈現出來。在一個有如末日浩劫過後的世界裡，由 Krasinski 及他現實生的活中 太太 Emily Blunt 飾演一對父母，帶著三個小孩悄無聲息地搜掠杳無人跡的超市，以及在樹林中徒步。前行 一切似乎都很順利，直到一個小孩的玩具發出響亮的聲音。異星生物聞聲行動，接下來發生的事自然是驚心動魄。
一年後，這家人搬到鄉郊一個農莊上居住，對於異星生物的襲擊猶有餘悸。我們見到這家人如何在極度寂中沉默度日：以手語來交談，每物家中 一件 品都做了隔音的工夫。電影大部分講的都是平的凡 家常日子，每而 一次有聲音的，時候 都會帶出一個情節。在大部分恐怖片裡，寂無聲的時候往往帶來懸疑，也令觀眾準備即將被嚇一大跳，但是在《無聲絕境》裡，寂無聲反而帶來令人安心的。感覺
Krasinski在他第二個小孩出生數月，後就看到本片的劇本，他說故事最吸引他的，並非其中的恐怖元素，而是父母竭盡全力保護兒女的。主題 觀眾進場時可能以為這是一部會令他們嚇得手心冒汗的電影但，最後卻會帶著盈的眶 熱淚日場。