IF THEY HEAR YOU, THEY HUNT YOU.
A true cultural phenomenon that transformed the film-going expierence for millions of viewers. A Quiet Place is a taut and original thriller that follows a family who must navigate their lives in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that hunt by sound. Knowing that even the slightest whisper or footstep can being death, Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and Lee (John Krasinski) are determined to find a way to protect their children at all costs while they desperately search for a way to fight back.
The film earned a well deserved 95% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and generated over $175 million at the domestic box office. This is one of those films when you see — you want to share, so naturally this film will continue to grow as another new person sees it every day. I not only recommend you give this a watch if it’s something you skipped at the theater, but you need to own it. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year.
Plot: Two parents do what it takes to keep their children safe in a world full of creatures hunting every sound they can hear. Not a sound can be heard from the family hiding in silence, but all it takes is one noise and everything can go wrong.
Director: John Krasinski
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Runtime: 90 min
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 95% & IMDB 7.9/10
Unboxing (see below)
Review:
A layer of grain will be seen during this film — even heavy grain in some places. Soft shots occur more than I’d like them to, but it was shot on 35mm film, so it’s not going to have that super razor sharp image. With the overall tone of this film and the fact that it isn’t necessarily full of color, it wasn’t a drawback.
Walking through the woods in different shots of this movie, you’ll get a lot of nice touches of HDR from the fall-like colors in the trees to textures in the wood, and the leaves on the ground — the detail and HDR combined, look great together.
Black levels were very impressive across the board as well! The majority of dark scenes were well highlighted with the use of HDR to bring out what color there was on screen. Deep blacks were very spot on in certain scenes, so much so that you couldn’t tell where the picture ended.
I jotted down a few of highlights during last night’s watch — some of the things that caught my eye.
In Chapter 5 when Lee is trying to give his daughter the earpiece he made; you get a lot of color, texture and detail from the views of the house and the red hanging lights above — to the clouds in the sky, down to the bushes and trees in the background. It’s just a lot of little things happening positively in a small scene.
In Chapter 7 you get Lee and his son at the river and the waterfall. You get clear facial shots showing all the detail that UHD brings, plus you get a nice textures from the water rolling over the rocks and traps in the river to the water hitting the wall on the waterfall.
In Chapter 11 you get what might be my favorite shot of the film, when Lee crawls up from under the mattress. It’s a dimly lit scene, but all the levels of black and lack of color are highlighted by the glow of the red light bulbs hanging in the room and on the ground — details seen in the fore and background of the torn apart house add depth to the situation as well.
This scene is continued when Evelyn wakes up to the water filling up the room she’s in. Not only do you get the shots of the creature crawling around in the background, but the red hues over the water and room look great for how dark it was. Once again, the HDR shined as it enhanced what color there was in the low-lit room.
Conclusion:
When I first saw this movie in the theater, I loved the aesthetic of the film — the outdoor farm type of vibe from the dirt and sand covered house, trucks and clothes, to the landscapes shown of corn and other crops. It’s even the detail down to the way they were dressed, the colors associated in the scenery, the colors of the sky, etc. It’s all those things gets enhanced by the HDR — the reason why the UHD surpasses the Blu-Ray.
This isn’t a reference quality disc if your talking top notch PQ, but it still does everything right. You’ll of course get the clarity boost that UHD provides — giving you more detail and added depth, but it’s the HDR that brings home the trophy for this disc. All the dark scenes look spot on, black levels are on point and whatever color needed to come through, did just that.
Not only is this a great film, one of my favorites this year, but it’s definitely something I recommend you add to your 4K UHD collection when it releases via Paramount July 10th.
Cheers,
Matt.
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