Any film comes with its own unique set of challenges. Sometimes these present themselves during the development stage, while other times they rear their heads during production. The most significant and most unique challenges for John Krasinski's A Quiet Place occurred in the marketing stage, as the folks behind the film had none of the usual tools at their disposal to sell the movie to audiences because of the lack of dialogue. In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, producer Brad Fuller explained:
It's funny, you're the first person to ask us this question, and you're onto something in a big way. People will ask 'what was it like to shoot the film?' or 'the challenge of making a film with very little dialogue.' I believe the hardest part was for the marketing department on cutting trailers and commercials where you don't have the stuff that you're so used to using to sell product. I think they've done an amazing job, but I think they were the ones that really felt the challenge of this movie. I'm like 'okay, how do we sell this movie when we don't, as you know, the movie doesn't have the classic genre exposition, a couple of minutes of dialogue which you would always see in the marketing of the movie to hang your hat on, and we don't have that. So, I think the challenge was really for them more than anyone else.
Many movies (particularly modern horror movies) have certain scenes that feel tailor-made for trailers. They lay out the necessary exposition and tell audiences precisely what this world is about in its purest form. However, A Quiet Place is practically a silent film for the bulk of its runtime, and most of the film's drama is conveyed nonverbally, with plot points doled out through context clues. As a result, the film actually lacks many of the fundamental elements that would make up a traditional marketing campaign. That meant the folks at Paramount had to go back to the drawing board and craft a marketing campaign that sold the movie using the building blocks available to them.
If you need further proof of the minimalist nature of A Quiet Place's marketing campaign, check out the film's Super Bowl trailer, below.
Of course, there are still some aspects of A Quiet Place that help make the film an easier sell for a mainstream audience. For starters, it's an old-school, auteur horror film, and that genre is particularly hot right now. Moreover, it's the first-ever on-screen collaboration between director John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, which has already generated headlines. Beyond that, the film has produced quite a bit of word of mouth. There's a lot to look forward to here, but as Brad Fuller explained in his interview with CinemaBlend, finding a way to sell the movie wasn't immediately a natural process.
We will see how well A Quiet Place's marketing campaign pays off this weekend when the film premieres in theaters on April 6. For now, you can take a look at our review of the film (not to mention our comprehensive reaction roundup) and start gearing up for John Krasinski's first foray into the horror realm.
