The Role Music Plays in The Film a Quiet Place

One of the many joys of being an audience member in a movie theater is the ability to have an experience outside the film. Audience reactions are gained through a variety of ways, but the most definite way of achieving some sort of reaction lies within an essential aspect of almost every viewer’s experience: music. Music in film achieves a number of things. It establishes setting, creates atmosphere, calls attention to elements, foreshadows narrative developments, gives meaning to a character’s actions or translates their thoughts, and creates emotion. In this short essay, I will discuss the role music plays in the film A Quiet Place.

A Quiet Place came out of nowhere earlier this year to become one of the best movies of 2018, and certainly one of the best horror movies of all time thanks to its use of sound. If you haven’t seen the film yet, you can probably guess from the title that sound, or the lack of it, is a big part of the storyline. Director John Krasinski, whom also starred in the film, revealed that music played a bigger role than most people probably realized. A Quiet Place is a thriller about a family of four that must navigate their lives in silence after mysterious creatures that hunt by sound threaten their survival.

The music in the film ratchets up the tension a thousand times. Whether it’s a simple scene of the family walking along an unused railroad track through the woods or reacting to faraway noises in the night, the music allows the viewer to live inside the skin of the characters, feel their constant wariness, and hear the thump of a heartbeat in their chests. There was one scene where music played a huge role in intensifying the pain of stepping on a nail. The music made the audience anticipate a character to step on a nail, making it way more thrilling and painful. As soon as the character stepped on the nail, the music stopped, signifying the danger of the ghastly creatures and the importance of being quiet. This effective use of music ultimately has audience members watching on the edge of their seats. If there was no music in the film, the audience would not be able to put themselves in the shoes of the characters as effectively.

Music was also used in the film to portray perspective. Perspective played a key part in intensifying tension, particularly from the point of view of the daughter, who was deaf. By addressing her inability to hear, sounds were removed during visually intense moments to overplay the thrill and realistic nature. Going into the daughter’s perspective sonically allows the audience to hear what she experiences and at the same time see what’s lurking behind her.

Another way music was utilized in the film was to magnify a sad scene and invoke sympathy in the audience members. There was one scene in the film where the father sacrificed himself for his children, and there was slow, pleasant music played in the background. The music helped the audience empathize for the characters even more and feel a part of the scene.

Therefore, music dictates the emotions audience members will feel during what may be the most memorable moments of a film. It adds to the life of the story, and it can ultimately make or break an audience’s experience. Sound is a tool that is underutilized, and A Quiet Place really proves you can do a lot more with it.