The Power of Silence: How A Quiet Place Uses Literary Techniques to Create Suspense
I remember purchasing tickets to see A Quiet Place in 2008. My cousin and I bought our snacks, presented our tickets, and waded through preview after preview until the movie began.
I had an unopened Coke before the movie, and guess what? That Coke stayed closed the entire film because I didn’t want to make a sound. The sensation of being immersed in the movie was an incredible experience I can’t imagine I will ever get again.
But this got me thinking about why a horror movie like A Quiet Place works. Instead of analyzing the movie-going experience, the zeitgeist of 2008, and the sensory novelty of the movie, I want to focus on the story’s literary techniques and how to apply them to fiction writing. Let’s dive in!
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is used frequently in A Quiet Place, and as an audience member, I appreciated that more than I would have expected. Foreshadowing is a cross-dimensional technique that prepares the audience for future action. The movie provided some great examples.
Objects: Nail, A rocket ship, fireworks, shotgun, broken water pipe, calendar, hearing aid
Colors: Red
People: Regan (her inability to hear comes into play in the second movie), Evelyn (pregnancy), Beau (curiosity)
Of these examples, three stood out as monumentally necessary: Beau’s curiosity, Evelyn’s pregnancy, and the dreaded nail.
The plastic white rocket, combined with Beau’s curiosity, was a powerful example of setting the rules of the story and experiencing the high cost of not following those rules. When the rocket ship is introduced, the audience immediately feels the danger behind that innocent item. It served as a vehicle that carried the guilt, sadness, and pent-up anger through the movie. It isn’t until Regan leaves it at the grave site, another foreshadowing, that her character develops.
The second example is Evelyn’s pregnancy. Pregnancy under A Quiet Place’s world conditions is an immediate gut check for the audience. This is why this is such a decisive foreshadowing moment. It signals to the audience that one of the loudest events a woman can go through is literally on the calendar, and there are only so many days to prepare for that.
Finally, the foreshadowing object that made me wince was the nail. This was a masterstroke of foreshadowing, and I can’t remember the last time I could feel so much lingering dread. When Evelyn pops the nail with the bag and fails to see that it’s now vertically oriented, the audience is placed on high notice that someone will step on it.
Lessons learned?
Don’t be afraid to foreshadow. It can pay off in huge ways.
Use foreshadowing to set the story's tone, rules, and stakes.
Don’t be afraid to be overt, but know when to pace the oversized ticket items like the nail or rocket ship.
Chekhov’s Gun. If you mention it in the first act, ensure it goes off by the third act. (The nail, the pregnancy, the white rocket)
The Three-Act Structure Doesn’t Disappoint
Act One is the setup. We start with silent exposition—day 89. The family is essentially going grocery shopping. The caveat? They have to stay quiet. Beau’s death establishes this important rule. Evelyn’s pregnancy and the shot of her counting down on the calendar raise the stakes considerably. The audience now has the world's rules, knows the stakes, and has an inciting incident to drive the story forward.
Act Two is the rising action with its complications and midpoint. Regan’s guilt and the fallout from Lees’s attempt to reconcile with his daughter create tension. The second act also introduces hope (Lee lighting the fire on the silo) and re-establishes the constant threat the aliens pose. We also discover that Regan’s cochlear implant can disrupt the aliens’ ability to attack/concentrate. It provides the audience with a potential tool to fight back.
Act Three is the final act, which is the climax and resolution. We see the attacks on the family, with Evelyn about to give birth and Regan and Marcus swimming through a silo as an alien attempts to rip them to shreds. We also see how Lee’s efforts to protect his family pay off. This includes the frequency that the implant creates and the emotional reconciliation he offers his daughter with his sacrifice.
Lessons learned?
Don’t be afraid to follow a writing structure, such as the tried-and-true three-act format. It works for a reason.
Make sure each element of your structure drives the story forward. A Quiet Place is a rather short film, which helped with pacing. Consider condensing things when there is too much fluff.
Make sure there are payoffs for each section. In act three, we get the baby's delivery, an emotional resolution with Lee and Regan, and a way for humans to fight back.
Themes That Resonate
One of the story's most prominent themes is the importance of family. When we first encounter the Abbotts, they are together. Act Two has them in different locations: Lee goes off to get fish and train Marcus, Regan ventures to Beau’s grave site to confront her guilt, and Evelyn stays behind to take care of chores. However, each scene shows every family member contemplating family.
Lee falls into a discussion with Marcus about Regan. Regan is shown at the marker where her brother died. She leaves the rocket ship as a way to let go of the guilt she feels about his death. Evelyn cries silently in her son’s room.
Family permeates the story.
Another theme is overcoming fear and trauma. With Beau's death and the events surrounding the alien invasion, the Abbotts’ lives are floating in the waters of guilt, fear, sorrow, and anticipation. Each family member needs to overcome these feelings to progress as a character. However, the story's tension revolves more around Lee and Regan than other characters.
For most of the film, Regan feels estranged from her father. Beau’s death has kept her searching for a way to redeem herself. We see this when she pleads to go with Lee and Marcus but is left behind. The audience also sees the tableaux of her coming to terms with the failed hearing aid Lee supplies. Unresolved tension can be a writer’s best friend, and the writers of A Quiet Place used it well with her.
The story does not focus on Lee and Evelyn's development as parents, but we see their struggles in attempting to protect their kids. Their attempts to overcome trauma are reflected in how the children interact with them—from Regan hesitating to get Lee for dinner to Marcus reminding Lee that Regan needs to hear that he doesn’t hate her.
Lessons Learned?
Don’t hesitate to leave characters underdeveloped, like Lee and Evelyn, if they are already stable.
Focus development on characters with the most tension or unresolved issues.
Let the mundane things of life flow into the theme. In A Quiet Place, mundane activities like gathering fish, putting sand on the ground and eating together reinforce the importance of family.
Conclusion
In closing, we can draw inspiration from the tremendous literary elements in the film A Quiet Place. The movie does an exceptional job of foreshadowing and heightens that literary device by largely adhering to the rules of the world. The movie also does a great job utilizing the three-act structure. And finally, the film explores straightforward themes like the importance of family, redemption, and overcoming trauma.
What are your thoughts on A Quiet Place? Share your favorite moments or how you've used similar techniques in your own writing!
