A Quiet Place

Dir: John Krasinski 1hr 30mins (15) Keep quiet and you’ll live

“You’ll need a lie down after this,” said Ed Potton in The Times. Starring Emily Blunt and directed by her husband, John Krasinski, this gripping movie is set in a world overrun by ravenous aliens who respond only to sound. Keep quiet and you’ll live – a devastatingly simple premise that makes for “the scariest film I’ve seen in years”. Blunt and Krasinski excel as Evelyn and Lee, parents eking out a living with their children in the woods, but the standout performer is Millicent Simmonds, a hearing-impaired actor who plays their deaf daughter, said Kim Newman in Empire. Thanks to her, the family know sign language, which has helped them to survive. Some scenes stretch credulity, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent. Evelyn is pregnant, so she must give birth without making a sound – nail-biting stuff, but not wholly plausible. If the film has a flaw, it’s that it never lets up, said Stephanie Zacharek in Time. “There’s little breathing space between its breathtaking moments.” Previously best-known as an actor, Krasinski announces himself as “a serious creative talent”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. Given the plot line it feels inappropriate to say it, but all involved deserve “a loud round of applause”.