Christian Persecution and Other Nonsense in A Quiet Place

In this age of ascendant American fascism, you may have noticed that one group faces more persecution than any other. It is not ethnic minorities, gay or trans people, or the disabled. No, I'm talking about Christians, especially of the rural, white, landowning variety. Sure, they are overrepresented in the US Government, with 87% of the United States Congress identifying as Christian compared with only 62% of the general population. Yes, over half of people in the US with incomes over $100k are Christians, and Christians account for more than half of all millionaires in the world. But Hollywood sometimes pokes fun at them, which is basically the worst kind of oppression.

A Quiet Place is about a world overrun by monsters that hunt by sound. It is also about communication and family, according to screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. It's also about a couple of parents who need their heads examined, according to me, Pickle Glitch the First, supreme ruler of Pickleton. But at its heart, I believe this film is an expression of Christian anxiety over their diminishing cultural dominance.

That 87% of Congress used to be 92%, and that 62% of the general population used to be 78%. Some Christians view this slight reduction and perceived loss of privilege as a sign they are under attack. The phenomenon has been around almost since the days when they actually were persecuted, and has long been a staple of right-wing politics. And while the exact religious beliefs of Beck and Woods are unclear, there is no doubt they are part of the Mormon community. Woods married a Mormon and they've said they have a lot of Mormon friends. Mormons faced some actual oppression as recently as the late 1800s, so maybe it should not be surprising that the persecution complex might still resonate with them today. The writers are part of that subculture, and those anxieties are hard to miss in A Quiet Place.

Like the writers, the film plays a bit coy with the religious affiliation of the characters. We don't see crosses adorning their home or witness them reading The Book of Mormon or anything so obvious. But we do see them silently saying grace before a meal, and the last name "Abbott" has clear religious connotations. They live a very traditional lifestyle, with Evelyn Abbott (played by Emily Blunt) taking the role of housewife. She stays home to cook and clean and take care of the children while her husband, Lee Abbott (played by John Krasinski, who also directed and co-wrote), has a very manly beard and does manly things like play with radios and go fishing.

This is reinforced when Lee goes off with their son, Marcus (played by Noah Jupe), on one of those fishing trips. Their daughter, Regan (played by Millicent Simmonds), is eager to go learn how to fish, but Lee insists on taking Marcus, who is terrified of this excursion. This struck me as another nod to the "traditional family values" crowd, but they leave the reason for this arrangement vague, seeming to blame it on the fact that Regan is deaf. The implication is supposed to be that, because Regan can't hear, she won't know if she is making too much noise and thus could endanger the expedition. This comes up again in a later scene when Regan is forbidden to go into the basement. The same basement they are busy soundproofing. Like a lot of the rest of the movie, none of this makes much sense.

If you listen to a certain subset of Christian actors like Kirk Cameron or Kevin Sorbo as they describe life in Hollywood, it might sound an awful lot like the world of A Quiet Place. Sorbo, among others, has been adamant that his career went to shit because of his Christianity, and not because he's less talented than a rotten ham sandwich. These people insist Hollywood is the type of place where a family of white, landowning Christians has to hide and stay silent, lest they will be instantly killed by Godless, predatory, liberal monsters.

As someone who writes under a pseudonym out of a fear that my beliefs could get me fired or prevent me from finding future employment, or even get me thrown in a gulag these days, I find the idea that Christians are a persecuted class in the United States to be laughable. This crowd of crybabies seems unaware of the many Hollywood celebs who are also religious and have great careers. Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, and Matthew McConaughey come to mind. Even lesser talents like Mark Wahlberg and Tyler Perry don't seem to have this problem. Wahlberg even attributes his success to his faith, and Tyler Perry's movies are heavily influenced by his Christianity. They are mostly terrible, but he's still found a lot of success in this supposed land of repressed Christians.

Religion is also apparent in the way the film treats the subject of parenthood. On that topic the message seems to be, "always have babies, NO MATTER WHAT!" The story begins with the youngest of the Abbott family's 3 children getting eaten by a monster, then jumps to a year later to reveal that Evelyn is once again pregnant. So, they waited what, 3 months before they decided it was time to start cooking up a replacement? I think I waited longer than that after my dog died. The wisdom of this decision is never questioned or even discussed.

I realize people have reproduced during awful situations for all of human history, but come on! Bringing a baby, one of the loudest creatures on Earth, into a world where the slightest sound could get you eaten just seems insane to me. Insane and wildly irresponsible. Childbirth is super risky, both for the mother and the baby. Beyond that, it endangers not only themselves and the unborn child but also the two children they haven't already gotten killed. And for what? Did they think they were going to repopulate the Earth? Lee had been trying to contact anyone left on Earth with a ham radio for probably a year or more, finding nothing but static. In other words, they don't even know if there are enough people left alive to make repopulation possible. It's possible, even likely, that they are dooming their unborn child to a life of lonely suffering. Again, none of this is ever discussed. Mindless procreation is presented as a self-evident good, no matter the circumstances or consequences.

Of course, featuring religious protagonists doesn't mean I'm going to automatically dislike a film. I thought this team's 2024 hit horror movie, Heretic, which featured 2 Mormon missionaries as the heroes and an atheist as the villain, was a solid, effective horror film. It had its share of tropes as well but at least the characters weren't idiots. I quite enjoyed that film. But in A Quiet Place I feel like the writer's worldview has overridden all logic and produced characters who aren't just religious but foolish.

The basement they are soundproofing? That is part of the family's plan for dealing with the noise of a newborn. Not the worst idea, I suppose, but they don't even bother to begin this process until Evelyn's due date is approaching. That fishing trip I mentioned earlier? That also occurs within days of Evelyn's due date. That's either very poor planning or simple stupidity. They rig up some fireworks at the far side of their farm in order to lure away the monsters should the worst happen. But despite Lee demonstrating a good deal of technical knowledge, he apparently didn't think of wiring up any kind of remote switch to trigger this distraction. In other words, someone has to go to the location that will be drawing in every monster in the area.

There's a reason horror movies have a reputation for characters being dumber than deep-fried dog turds. It makes it easier to get them into bad situations. It's not always a problem, depending on the tone of the movie. If I'm watching Jason X, I don't care how dumb the victims are, so long as their deaths are entertaining. Let's face it, you have to be pretty dumb to wind up in a movie like Jason X, and you probably deserve what's coming to you.

But the characters in A Quiet Place are supposed to be smart enough to have survived this long while most of the rest of the world has not. And this is a Serious Film™, not some slasher schlockfest. Critics loved this movie. Matthew Monagle of Film School Rejects called it "the early frontrunner for the sparsely intellectual horror movie of the year." It won several awards, including a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and Best Writing, beating Hereditary and Us, both of which are far better films in my opinion. Leonard Maltin called it "a thoroughly relatable thriller laced with horror-movie tropes." He was right about the tropes, but relatable? I guess it must be to most people, but not to me.

The premise of A Quiet Place is interesting and its use of sound is admirable, but it's brought down by all the obvious contrivances and tropes used to create tension. Characters hiding in total silence because the slightest noise will get them killed is not the innovation critics seemed to think. The nail in the staircase? That had me rolling my eyes. A woman going into labor at the worst possible moment? That's cheap drama that has been done in every genre imaginable, from Star Trek to sitcoms.

In the end I spent too much of the film frustrated by all the things that made no sense at all, from the inexplicable miles of sand pathways the family somehow manages to establish and maintain, to the rather obvious weakness of the creatures that no one, not the military, not the scientists, not even Google, managed to discover. I'm willing to overlook a little sloppy writing if the rest of the film is good enough, but A Quiet Place doesn't meet that mark for me.