2018 horror film A Quiet Place broke through the noise of a box office dominated by blockbusters and pre-existing properties. 1 Acclaimed by critics, the relatively modest production, which cost only 17 million dollars to make, went on to gross over 340 million dollars worldwide (AQP Numbers).In part, this success is rooted in the film's focus on the horror soundscape, which is central to its very premise.A Quiet Place opens eighty-nine days after an alien invasion has decimated the world's population.The invading creatures are sightless monsters with hypersensitive hearing and hunt using sound.We follow one family's struggle to keep silent and stay alive.The Abbotts seem especially well equipped for survival in this world; because their eldest child, Regan, is deaf, they can already communicate silently using American Sign Language.Regan's supposed disability therefore serves as a tool for family survival.However, in a world where sound is deadly, Regan's deafness would also seem to intensify her vulnerability.Because she does not hear, she is likelier to find herself in a compromising position, unaware when a sound has endangered her or when the creatures are close.This threat is highlighted in the film's opening sequence, when Regan gives her little brother a toy rocket which he recklessly activates.Failing to understand the necessity of silence, he is promptly killed off.The family's grief is literally unspeakable, and the need to keep quiet amplifies the breakdown of communication that they experience while in
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