A Quiet Place

How important is the sound of silence?

Image source: https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Place-Original-Soundtrack-Album/dp/B07BF854PT

A Quiet Place Soundtrack by Marco Beltrami

Rating: 9/10

For a movie with barely any dialogue and an emphasis on silence, the musical choices for A Quiet Place became far more important than in the typical film. Though it is not technically a silent film (there are about 90 spoken lines), having a mostly silent film while still keeping suspense can sometimes be difficult. And although the actors do a great job creating a suspenseful atmosphere, It comes down to the soundtrack to really emphasize that suspense while not taking away from the overall silence.

Listening through the soundtrack, most of Marco Beltrami’s tracks made me feel incredibly remorseful, though it is meant to instill fear in the viewer at most times. Beltrami is known for his ability to compose for suspense and action films, including Logan and Free Solo. His work always reflects these feelings well, as he places certain nuances and dynamic shifts at the perfect moments. Something I love about film scores is the way the music interacts with the story unfolding. Often a composer will create music that backs a film and set the emotion well enough, but it might not match up with the timing of the story. For this, and most other horror/suspense films, it’s so crucial for the composer to line up their score with jump scares or more quiet moments. Those energies can change so quickly in these genres that if any timing is off, the music won’t match. Beltrami does a great job lining up his score and having the dynamic shifts emphasis certain scenes.

One thing that I’ve learned through my time playing music, is that dynamic shifts are incredibly important. And if you want something to seem loud, on top of playing it loudly you also have to play everything before it softly. Because A Quiet Place is meant to be silent most of the time, it is so important for the music to match that. The tension and the fear are held in those quiet moments, so the soundtrack can’t be loud. But as with most horror films, there are often jump scares or moments where that fear is released by a character running or an antagonist appearing. To emphasize that, the music roars from almost nothing to the whole orchestra. Beltrami does well with this, such as in the track “Children of the Corn”. The piece crescendos and decrescendos wonderfully, you don’t even have to watch the scene to know that nothing good can be happening. The lows of this track are so quiet you almost have to lean toward your speaker only to have the sound quickly rise up again and push you back a few feet.

One of my favorite tracks on the album is “A Quiet Family”. The track begins with a piano that is altered to sound old and out of tune. It reminds me of an old music box that has become worn over the years, and is slowly losing its ability to turn properly. I’ve personally never heard a track like this, using that dissonance of an out of tune instrument to help set up the story. This is one of the tracks that create that feeling of remorse I mentioned earlier. It has moments where you think the music is going to be hopeful, or even a little happy, and then you hear the dissonance of the piano and you remember that something bad is lurking just around the corner.

Marco Beltrami’s compositions, though they feel like stereotypical suspense tracks for this film, also have a few very unique qualities that I enjoy greatly. His use of disonances and a mix of acoustic and synthesized instruments help create a wonderful atmosphere for A Quiet Place.