You had me at Stanley Tucci. YET, this mediocre Quiet-Place-wannabe fails to deliver the same visceral fear, instead limping along with so-so special effects and forgettable characters.
When spelunkers below the AT in Pennsylvania accidentally release a blind dino/bird/bat creature which has evolved underground for millions of years with basically bionic hearing and an appetite for human flesh, populations on the eastern seaboard start dying off state by state. Soon, people flee and word spreads that the creatures – which they call vesps – locate victims by sound alone. One 16-year-old girl – who lost her hearing just a few years before and whose family has all learned to sign to communicate – helps her kinda dense parents realize (a good half hour into the movie) that they are all really good at being quiet already, so they should just sign more instead of talking out loud.* As they head toward a supposed Refuge up north while fighting for their lives from the vesps, they also learn the popular horror movie lesson that humans can sometimes pose a bigger threat than the monsters themselves.
*Big Pet Peeve: some of the movie has subtitles to help translate the signing, yet during most of it, the family continues to stage whisper to one another without consequence. Seems the vesps can hear a stick break but not their so-called quiet voices.
- Top Scare: Snake scene
- Heartbeats: 1 1/2 out of 5
- Gore Factor: 2 out of 5
- Suspense Factor: 2 out of 5
- Recommended for: Ages 13 and up