Walking out of A Quiet Place was a unique experience because it's a horror movie with a touching theme about family. Not many films of the genre can balance frightening their viewers and warming their hearts in just under two hours. The film's director, co-writer and star John Krasinski recently revealed that the ending was a lot more horror-like, but one of the film's producer pitched the idea that made it into the final cut, which Krasinski wasn't always fond of. In his words:
He said, 'Emily needs to shoot the monster.' And I remember thinking, that's insane. I was so against it. And bizarrely, I was driving to work the next day and was listening to an old podcast, an interview with Steven Spielberg from the early '80s, and someone said: 'Why is your generation of directors moving away from making art?' And he said, 'Why can't we make art films that you can also eat popcorn to? I'm not going to shy away from making people enjoy really exciting movie moments, too.' And I thought, 'Oh my God!' That was my wake-up moment to this idea that shooting the creature at the end wasn't abusing my artistic take.
It looks like you can thank Steven Spielberg's inspiration for another classic movie ending! When filmmakers are caught up in the film development process, sometimes they can get caught up in their "art" and forget to service the moviegoers who are going to buy tickets. Spielberg's perspective on popcorn moments contributing to the art of a film was great advice for Krasinski to hear, and Hollywood knows the director has seen a few hits in his day.
In John Krasinski's interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he spoke about how through the process of fleshing out the film's story, he kept wanted to push this idea of family. He has previously described the film as a love letter to his daughter at its core and the ending contributes to bringing this point home. Krasinski cast his wife, Emily Blunt as a lead in the film and he shared four different roles in the filmmaking process of A Quiet Place, including walking around in a motion-capture suit and sneakers as the monster.
A Quiet Place could have been your typical horror flick: gorier, less gratifying and bleak. But John Krasinski and his filmmaking team decided to tell a unique story, with a shocking ending. One would not expect the male lead to die, the disabled daughter to find the monster's weakness or the nurturing mother of three to shoot and kill it, but that's what happens in A Quiet Place. In addition to the star power of the Hollywood couple's first collaboration on screen, its terrifying premise of the fear of silence as a main device and its critical success each raised up the film to become one of the unexpected movie successes of 2018.
John Krasinski's passion project is also getting a sequel on May 15, 2020, which the multi-talent has also started working on.
