'Thinking Man’s' Horror for people who don’t think. This surprise hit for John Krasinski (writer/producer/director/star) takes your standard post-apocalyptic/War of the Worlds dystopian set-up into the countryside where Farmer John and stalwart family (wife, three kids, one on the way) live in near silence (plus sign language) to survive destructive blind, sound-seeking monsters. It’s the sort of story just made for a scary 15-minute Camp Fire tale, but tricky to sustain at 90 minutes. Little surprise then to find Krasinski stretching this out with the usual Fright Flick tropes, shock cuts, back-of-the-frame monster sightings, and dumb choices from a small cast to bring on troubles. Somehow they all stay safe for a year and a half without a snore, burp or fart giving them away. The film holds more interest quietly working thru various family dynamic issues: sulking teens, burn-out, fear of the known & unknown, closure after a needless, but perhaps not blameless, death in the family. Plus young Noah Jupe as the son, scoring with a face of near-perpetual anxiety.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: More (and rather better) art-house horror in THE BABADOOK/’14. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-babadook-2014.html
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