HAMNET : Tuesday 3rd March 2026

I finally got around to seeing the M Rated 'HAMNET' this week, some six weeks after its Australian release on 15th January. This biographical period film is Directed and Co-Edited by Chloe Zhao, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, and is based on the 2020 novel by O'Farrell. Chloe Zhao's previous feature film output takes in her 2015 debut with 'Songs My Brother Taught Me', which she would follow up with 'The Rider' in 2017, 'Nomadland' in 2020 and 'The Eternals' in 2021. The film had its World Premiere showcasing at the Telluride Film Festival on 29th August last year and received a limited cinema release in the USA and Canada at the end of November, before going wide on 5th December, and was released in the UK on 9th January this year. It has garnered widespread universal critical acclaim, has so far grossed US$93M from a US$35M production budget and has collected eighty-six award wins and a further 298 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit, with some of those award nods still pending a final outcome. The film is also Co-Produced by Steven Spielberg and Sam Mandes.

An opening card states that in Stratford, England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the names Hamnet and Hamlet were considered the same, and interchangeable. We then cut to the opening scene in which Agnes (Jessie Buckley) wakes from a slumber curled up in the root of a giant tree, under which appears to be mystery cave. She then rises to her feet and summons to a hawk from high up in the tree tops to come to her landing on her falconry gloved hand. She also gathers up herbs. 

Meanwhile, William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) works as a tutor to young children to help pay off family debts which his father John (David Wilmot) incurred. He leaves his students after seeing Agnes coming out of the forest and they share a brief moment of tenderness. William's mother, Mary (Emily Watson), tells him of rumours that Agnes is the daughter of a forest witch who taught her herbal lore, which Agnes later uses to heal a small cut to William's forehead. 

William later visits Agnes in the forest. Agnes foretells William of a successful future for him, and two children at her deathbed, by pressing down on the fleshy part of his hand between thumb and forefinger. The pair consummate their relationship, impregnating Agnes, leading her family to disown her and forcing her to move into the Shakespeare household. The two marry, and Agnes gives birth to Susanna in the woods.

Seeing William's frustration with what we would call today writers block, Agnes suggests to her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) to send him to London for a theatrical career, leaving her and Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) in Stratford. Later, a pregnant Agnes tries to go outside to give birth, but William's family restrain her in the house, where she gives birth to twins Hamnet and Judith, the latter at first appearing to be stillborn. Remembering being kept from her mother's deathbed, and despite the midwife (Laura Guest) wanting to take the infant away, Agnes demands to hold the baby, and Judith stirs and wakens.

Eleven years later, William has found success and fortune in London and returns intermittently while the children grow up very close. Agnes foretells that Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), who wishes to join his father's theatre company, will flourish. Agnes's hawk dies and is buried in the forest, and she tells the children to make a wish to the hawk's spirit, who she says will carry them in its heart. Returning to London, William wanders the streets during an outbreak of bubonic plague. In Stratford, Judith (Olivia Lynes) falls gravely ill with the plague. Hamnet evokes the tale of the hawk to encourage her to get better, and lies beside her, proclaiming he wants to take her place, to trick death. Judith recovers, but Hamnet in turn falls gravely ill and dies a painful death in Agnes' arms. 

William rushes home and is ecstatic that Judith has seemingly made a full recovery, but that turns to despair when he sees Hamnet lying at rest. His continued absence places his marriage to Agnes under pressure as they cope with Hamnet's death in their own ways. William buys the largest house in Stratford and departs for London again. Agnes holds his hand and says she now sees nothing. William rehearses Hamlet in London, but is frustrated by his Actor's flat delivery. In despair, one night while out walking, he leans over the edge of a jetty on the River Thames, contemplating ending his life, and recites his 'To be, or not to be . . . that is the question' monologue from the play. 

Agnes's stepmother Joan (Justine Mitchell) shows her a playbill for a production of 'Tragedie of Hamlet' in London and chastises her for marrying William, but Agnes berates her. Agnes and Bartholomew travel to London to see William. Finding him absent from his modest attic residence, they decide to attend the first performance of Hamlet at the Globe Theatre. 

Making their way to the very front of the stage, when the production begins Agnes is initially offended, thinking her son's name is being taken in vain, however, upon seeing William as the ghost of Hamlet's father, she realises the play is a tribute to Hamnet, and is moved to tears by the scene involving Hamlet and his father. 

Backstage, William, having noticed Agnes, breaks down in tears while listening to the play unfold, and returns to see Agnes from the wings. The play progresses through scenes of sword-fighting, fulfilling Hamnet's dream of such a role. During Hamlet's (Noah Jupe) death scene, Agnes reaches forward for the actor's hand as she had held William's when they first met, and the rest of the audience reaches out toward him also. She sees her son Hamnet on the stage, seen earlier as his dying vision. He moves from sadness to a smile before disappearing into the backstage, through a doorway resembling the forest cave opening under the tree from where Agnes woke in the opening scene. For the first time since Hamnet's death, Agnes laughs and smiles.

Director and co-scribe Chloe Zhao has here delivered us a film for the ages, one that resonates with heartfelt emotion that is underpinned by a powerful screenplay, top notch cinematography, high end production values, and first rate performances by Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and a young Jacobi Jupe. This is a film that serves as a testament to life and death, and to love and grief, in equal measure that culminates in a real tear jerker of an ending that will remain with you long after the end credits have rolled. See it on the big screen, you won't be disappointed. The film deserves all the accolades bestowed upon it. 

'Hamnet' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

A QUIET PLACE : PART II - Tuesday 1st June 2021.

'A QUIET PLACE : PART II' which I saw this week is an M Rated eagerly anticipated long awaited American horror follow-up to 2018's 'A Quiet Place' which grossed US$341M off the back of a US$20M production budget, and was Co-Written, Directed and starred John Krasinski. For this sequel John Krasinski returns to the Directors chair and he also wrote, Co-Produced and once again has a small role in this film, even though his character was killed off in the first film. This film saw its World Premier screening in New York City back on 8th March 2020, with a worldwide release set from 20th March 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was rescheduled to 4th September 2020. It was then changed to 23rd April 2021 and then changed again to 17th September 2021. After three postponements, it was moved earlier in the year to last week. This film was made for US$61M, has so far grossed US$90M and has generated largely positive Critical acclaim. Apparently, in May of this year Emily Blunt revealed that her husband John Krasinski has an idea for a third instalment. 

The film kicks off on Day One of the alien attack, over a year before the events of the first film. The Abbott family are attending their son Marcus' (Noah Jupe) baseball game. Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) has just returned from a general store where he has picked up a supply of fresh oranges for the mid-game break. He sits with his daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) talking with another Dad, Emmett (Cillian Murphy) about how the game is unfolding. Mid-game the players and the spectators notice a burning object in the skies above their town hurtling towards the Earth. 

Panic ensues and most attempt to get outta there quickly by retreating to their cars and driving off. Lee drives off with Regan and Evelyn drives off with her two sons, agreeing to meet back at their farm house. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the townsfolk when many are systematically attacked indiscriminately by rampaging blind aliens with hypersensitive hearing and seemingly impenetrable armour like skin. The Abbott's are able to get out alive, but only just having been chased down by one such alien, who dispenses with the local Police Officer instead. 

We then fast forward to day 474 since the aliens arrived on Earth and wiped out much of the population, including Lee who sacrificed himself at the end of the first film while attempting to save Regan and Marcus from an approaching alien creature. Regan had discovered that the aliens are vulnerable to high-frequency audio feedback, and devised a means of transmitting her cochlear implant hearing aid's noise through a microphone and radio, so allowing Evelyn to shoot the creatures dead while in their vulnerable state. And so with Lee dead, we pick up where the last film left off. The Abbott family, together with their newborn son leave the farm for good, with the barn burning and only what they can carry between them. Evelyn is carrying an oxygen cylinder for the newborn baby and Regan has retrieved a portable guitar amplifier and microphone with which to fend off any alien attack. They head off down the sand path in search for what might remain of human communities at which they can reestablish themselves.

The Abbott's come to what looks like an abandoned train yard and enter a fenced-off area. Evelyn treads on a trip wire causing a bunch of cans and bottles tied to a rope to come crashing down. She orders Regan and Marcus to 'run' as an alien is alerted by the jangling noise. Marcus runs over a bear trap and his foot is caught. He screams out in agony which only further serves to attract an alien. Evelyn is able to shoot it dead as it approaches and then she frees her son who can now barely walk. 

The family runs into an abandoned steel foundry just as another alien approaches. Inside, with the alien giving chase, they run into Emmett, who hurriedly takes them to his bunker under the foundry, and they all hide in a giant cauldron until the coast is clear. Later that evening when Marcus has had his injuries attended to, he and Regan hear a radio signal broadcasting the song 'Beyond the Sea' on a loop. Regan comes to the conclusion that it is a clue meant to lead survivors to a radio tower on a nearby island. 

She decides to venture out alone, much to Marcus' chagrin, to go there in secret and transmit the high-frequency noise her hearing aid produces, allowing anyone picking up the signal to use it to thwart the aliens. After realising that Regan has left, Evelyn begs Emmett to go find her and bring her back. He eventually catches up with Regan inside the wreckage of an old train carriage and saves her from an alien.  He tells her they will be returning at once. However, after explaining her plan to him and appealing to his sense of duty he reluctantly agrees to help complete her mission. Back at Emmett's bunker, Evelyn leaves Marcus and her baby for just a couple of hours to go in search of much needed needed medical supplies, including oxygen for the baby, and bandages and medication to treat Marcus' injured foot and ankle. While she is gone, Marcus decides to explore the foundry by torchlight. He is startled when he comes across the corpse of Emmett's deceased wife, sending him reeling backwards in shock and knocking over several objects on a nearby table. This alerts a nearby alien to his location. He runs quickly back to the bunker, bundles up the baby, grabs the oxygen cylinder and then inadvertently locks himself and the baby inside the cauldron.

Meanwhile, Emmett tells Regan that he has located a boat to get them across to the island. Under cover of darkness the pair search a marina for a suitable vessel, when they are attacked by a group of feral humans who attempt to take Regan with them, while binding Emmett with fishing net to which is tied cans and bells. While the ferals are walking down the jetty with Regan, Emmett motions to her to dive into the water, leaving him to deliberately attract two aliens that set about slaughtering the ferals. One alien falls into the water and flails about while another becomes trapped on a boat. By now Emmett is in the water himself watching the carnage unfold before him. He realises the aliens cannot swim. 

Regan secures a boat and the two escape. Regan and Emmett arrive at the island and find a colony of human survivors living a near normal existence. The community's leader (Djimon Hounsou) explains that when the government discovered the aliens were unable to swim, the National Guard moved as many people as possible to the islands, but when people began to selfishly fight to get aboard, the aliens attacked and destroyed all but two of the twelve boats scheduled to leave. 

In the bunker, Marcus and the baby begin to run out of oxygen in the cylinder and the cauldron is airtight. Marcus loses consciousness. Almost at the point of suffocation Evelyn returns carrying her much needed medical supplies and two full oxygen cylinders. Hearing the cacophony Evelyn distracts the alien by firing a bullet at one of the cylinders which explodes in a ball of flame enveloping the alien. But, the alien comes out the other side almost unscathed, so she disorients it by setting off the overhead sprinkler system and then saves Marcus and her young son by clambering into the cauldron but being mindful not to lock them inside. The three share the oxygen tank to survive while the alien waits outside.

The next day, Emmett discovers an alien has drifted to the island on a boat, carried along by the tide. Just as Emmett races to alert the island folk it emerges and starts slaughtering everyone in its path. Emmett, Regan, and the leader lure the alien to the radio station, but upon entering the leader is grabbed from behind and killed by the alien which then follows Regan and Emmett inside. Emmett sustains an injury to his leg by being clawed by the alien when he attempts to distract it, but Regan is able to play the high-pitched sound from her implant through the radio station's internal speakers so weakening the alien. She then walks towards the alien and brings down a heavy pole through its head, killing it outright. At the same time in the bunker, Marcus picks up the signal and routes it through his portable radio, weakening the alien waiting outside. He approaches holding the radio aloft and shoots it with Evelyn's revolver, killing it. Regan leaves her hearing aid on the radio station microphone, allowing anyone picking up the correct frequency to use the noise to fight them darn pesky no good aliens.

'A Quiet Place : Part II' is a great sequel to a great movie, and in this second instalment Director and Writer John Krasinski has crafted a scary, emotional, tense, taut, lean monster feature that ups the action, the suspense and the feeling of dread in a truly immersive piece of film making that proves he is no one trick pony. Emily Blunt's Evelyn here takes a back seat to the action (albeit remaining as equally grounded and more in protective maternal mode) that is more centered upon Millicent Simmonds Regan and newcomer Cillian Murphy's Emmett as the pair venture out to find salvation from the marauding alien monsters. Noah Jupe's Marcus also puts in a convincing turn as both son and daughter ultimately lay to waste an alien foe so saving themselves and a pair of incapacitated adults in the process. The production values are top notch, and both the Editor and Cinematographer deserve a special mention for the part they play in crafting three varying story lines into a coherent whole. My only gripe would be that the origin and what motivates the alien creatures to randomly kill every human in sight is not touched upon - at all, and as such it feels that Krasinski has all too little to say about them anyway, or that they are poorly conceived, or that for the audience he would rather let the slicing and dicing of their human prey do the talking. That said, 'A Quiet Place : Part II' is certainly well worth the price of your cinema ticket, and if these first two films in the series is anything to go by, then bring on 'A Quiet Place : Part III'.

'A Quiet Place : Part II' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

FORD V. FERRARI : Tuesday 19th November 2019.

'FORD v FERRARI' is an M-Rated American biographical drama film which I saw earlier this week, and is Directed and Co-Produced by James Mangold, whose previous film making credits include 'Cop Land', 'Girl, Interrupted', 'Walk the Line', '3:10 to Yuma', 'Knight and Day', 'The Wolverine' and 'Logan'. In early stages of development, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were cast in the starring roles, but those plans fell through, paving the way for Matt Damon and Christian Bale to take on the two leads. The film cost US$98M to make, was released in the US last week too having seen its World Premier showing at Telluride in late August, then at TIFF in September, has garnered widespread Critical acclaim, and has so far recouped US$63M of its initial budget outlay.

The film opens up with Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) competing in, and ultimately winning the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race when he co-drove the Aston Martin DBR1 beating out fierce rivals Ferrari. Due to an emerging heart condition that made it riskier for him to race, Shelby retires from racing following his Le Mans victory but kept his motivation very much alive to beat the Ferrari's, who had previously turned him down for a driving position. We then fast forward four years to 1963, and  the Ford Motor Company Vice President Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) proposes to Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) to purchase the cash-strapped Ferrari as a means to boost their flagging car sales by participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in order to attract the emerging younger more affluent customer demographic. On a trip to Maranello in Italy - the Ferrari HQ, Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone), turns his back on the deal, as Fiat counter offers him a much more attractive deal that allows him to retain his ownership of his racing team and pride and joy, Scuderia Ferrari.

Enzo Ferrari insults Henry Ford II and puts a slur on him personally and his company, which Iacocca takes back to Detroit and recounts to Fords face. As a result of this, a furious Ford II orders his racing division to build a car to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans. For this project, Iacocca hires Shelby American owner Carroll Shelby, who at first is very reluctant and sceptical, but when told by Iacocca that money is no object, he relents. In turn, Shelby enlists the help of Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a hot-tempered and highly opinionated British racing car driver and cash strapped motor mechanic relocated to southern California from his native Birmingham in England, with his wife Mollie (Catriona Balfe) and young son Peter (Noah Jupe).

Miles is also very sceptical of Ford's intentions at first and takes some convincing by Shelby to come on board, but eventually does so, with the promise of US$200 a day plus expenses as an inducement - much needed under his dire financial circumstances at the time, with the IRS having recently repossessed his mechanical workshop.

Shelby and Miles test drive the Ford GT40 Mk I prototype at Los Angeles International Airport, putting the new vehicle through its paces and one by one ironing out all of its design flaws until it is race ready. Deeming that Miles is not their ideal driver on the grounds of his outspokenness and unpredictability to mouth off, Ford opts to send Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren to the 1964 Le Mans race instead, who are much better versed in the marketing and PR protocols likened by Ford. As predicted by Miles, none of the Fords finish the race. Shelby is summonsed by Henry II who sees this result as a humiliating defeat. However, Shelby explains to him that the GT40 instilled fear in Ferrari, as it reached a record breaking 218 mph on the Mulsanne straight before it broke down.

Shelby and Miles continue working on the development of the GT40 Mk II, but Miles is nearly killed when the car's brakes fail during testing. In 1966, Ford Senior Vice President Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) takes over the racing division, with the intent to continue the program without Miles.

On a trip out to Shelby's HQ to see for himself where his US$9M race car investment is being spent, Shelby gives Henry II a ride in the car around the test track at top speed. Henry II has never experienced anything like this before, and is an emotional wreck when Shelby brings the car to an abrupt halt. To make Henry II see sense, he bets his own company, Shelby American, on the line to convince him that if Miles wins the 24 Hours of Daytona race, then he will be granted to race at Le Mans later in the year.

Shelby American enters Daytona with Miles behind the wheel. Beebe puts a second Ford team in the race with a proven NASCAR crew supporting them in the pits. While the second team has quicker pit stops, Shelby has Miles push his car's limit to 7,000 RPM, which sees him winning the race, much to the chagrin of Beebe, and the tongue in cheek disappointment of Henry II for not winning Shelby American.

And so the 1966 Le Mans race day arrives. During the opening lap Miles has problems with his door, which won't close and so pits at the end of the first lap, and so team engineer Phil Remington (Ray McKinnon) fixes the door with a mallet. Thereafter, Miles begins to set lap records while catching up with the Ferrari's. While racing with Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini (Francesco Bauco), Miles experiences brake failure and has his whole brake system replaced during his pit stop. Enzo Ferrari protests the move, but Shelby convinces the race officials that there is nothing written in the race rule book that says a team cannot replace the whole brake system, at which point the official backs down.

Miles and Bandini once again battle it out on the Mulsanne Straight until Bandini blows his engine, completely eliminating Ferrari in the race. About 21 hours into the race, Miles has driven convincingly amassing a significant lead, leaving three Ford teams in the top-three positions. Beebe hits upon an idea and orders Shelby to have Miles slow down for the other two Fords to catch up with him and provide the press with a three-car photo finish. Miles is initially against this decision, continuing to set new lap records towards the end of the race, but decides to let Ford have their way on the final lap. 

The French race officials, after initially agreeing to Ford's dead-heat 'photo-finish', reneged after the fact, stating that as the McLaren/Amon #2 car had started some 20 yards behind the Miles/Hulme #1 car, it had travelled a farther distance, and as such Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon were declared the winners on a technicality, with Miles and Hulme being awarded second place. Miles is however, graceful in his defeat and grateful to Shelby for giving him the chance to race at Le Mans.

Two months after Le Mans and following almost a day of testing the new model J-car at Riverside International Raceway in the blisteringly hot Southern California desert summer weather, Miles approached the end of the track's one mile, downhill back straight at a top speed of 200+ mph when the car suddenly looped, flipped, crashed and exploded in a ball of flame. The car broke into pieces and ejected Miles, killing him instantly. Miles was aged 47 when he died on August 17th 1966.

You don't have to be a petrol-head die hard fan of motor sport to like 'Ford v. Ferrari'. The film has a true story to tell, that Director Mangold keeps grounded in the truth and the facts surrounding these moments in motor sporting history that saw the true underdog of American motor manufacturing defeat the Italian Goliath's dominance on the race track over successive years. The pairing of Damon and Bale is well matched as two close friends who overcome adversity both on and off the race track, frustrations with the corporate establishment, numerous roadblocks and questionable decisions to ultimately win through yet pay the ultimate price in doing so. The story line is compelling, well scripted, the race sequences are very well realised, the performances strong and as an overall package it's a real crowd pleaser and a throw back to those films of yesteryear of a similar ilk - 1966's 'Grand Prix' and 1971's 'Le Mans' - in terms of spectacle and emotion, but updated with all the modern gloss that Hollywood can throw at it.

'Ford v. Ferrari' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

A QUIET PLACE : Tuesday 10th April 2018.

'A QUIET PLACE' which I saw this week, is an American modern horror film Co-Written, Directed and starring John Krasinski that has already received much critical acclaim since its Premier at the annual South by Southwest Festival held in Austin, Texas on 9th March, before its US, UK and Australian release last week. Krasinski, perhaps best known for his role as Jim Halpert on the NBC hit sitcom 'The Office' is no stranger to the world of film and television acting having amassed so far 46 acting credits, as well as eleven Producer credits and four as Director and four as Screenwriter picking up six award wins and another 24 nominations along the way. Here he stars with his real life wife Emily Blunt, in this film that cost US$17M to make and has so far grossed US$89M.

The premise of the film is quite simple. A family of four living in a post-apocalyptic upstate New York community scavenge for essential supplies in a deserted town. It is 2020, and the opening credits tell us it is about the tenth week since the apocalypse hit and the worlds population was nearly wiped out - but by what exactly we don't yet know, except for a newspaper headline blowing in the wind on a newsstand proclaiming 'It's sound!'

Mum Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt), Dad Lee Abbott (John Krasinski), deaf teenage daughter Regan (the actually deaf Millicent Simmonds) who communicates with her family via American Sign Language, son Marcus (Noah Jupe) and their youngest lad Beau (Cade Woodward) snoop around the empty ransacked remains of a general store seeking supplies, all the while remaining deathly quiet, not whispering a sound and walking around on barefoot. Young Beau takes a fancy to a model of the Space Shuttle, but father Lee takes it from him motioning that its sounds will be too loud. Lee removes the toys batteries and leaves them and the Space Shuttle model on the counter top, and they leave to go home while it's still daylight.

Regan returns the toy to Beau who secrets it away under his coat and brings up the rear of the family unit, but before doing so, grabs the batteries too. On the walk home, crossing a bridge, young Beau inserts the batteries and turns on the toy. It springs to life with flashing lights and sounds that instantly attracts an alien creature approaching at lightning speed. In an instant Beau is gone, dead, while the other four family members look on in horror.

We next fast forward to day 472, and the family of four has settled into a routine of silence on their  farmstead. By now we have learned that the Abbott's must fight for their survival without making a sound for fear of being attacked, killed and possibly eaten by lightning fast blind spidery like extra terrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing. Being blind, the only way these creatures can survive, is to locate their prey by sound. The family has learned to communicate by necessity with their deaf daughter Regan by way of American Sign Language which possibly accounts for their survival when their friends and neighbours have all perished. Evelyn is also heavily pregnant and expecting the birth of their next child within a matter of weeks.

Lee takes his son, Marcus on a fishing trip. His son is very reluctant to go for fear of the creatures, and Regan pleads to go instead, But it is Marcus' turn to go, and go he must, leaving Regan to stay at home and look after her expectant Mum, while Marcus learns the skills of survival to help safeguard his future. Feeling rejected, Regan goes off in a huff to visit Beau's memorial cross where he fell prey to the creature at the entry to the bridge the year before. She remains there until nightfall. Meanwhile father Lee explains to his son, that the sounds of the rushing river will drown out any sounds that the pair make, and therefore they are safe from attack. Having caught their fish, they walk back through the woods and come to an abandoned house.

In the grounds they confront an old man standing over his limp lifeless and recently torn body of his wife. The old man is emotional, and Lee motions to him to control himself and remain silent, but he cannot and he screams out loud so attracting a creature which charges and kills him. Lee picks up his son and runs for cover behind a tree. Marcus is visibly upset by the scene and the sounds of the attack and is restrained by his father. When the coast is clear, they continue with their journey home.

In the meantime, Evelyn is home alone not noticing Regan's absence. She goes about her business hanging out the washing, and visiting their former home on the farm, for they now live in a converted barn a short distance away that is more suitable for their needs. Inside the house she sits in the bedroom of her youngest son, weeps and dozes off. Coming round, it is approaching the early evening. Walking down the stairs, her waters break with the onset of labour. Walking down the stairs to the basement, which is Lee's surrogate control and communications centre, she steps barefoot on a protruding nail, that she snagged inadvertently earlier in the day. She screams out in pain, drops a glass picture frame and attempts to conceal her screams, but to no avail. One of the creatures has heard the commotion, and comes charging toward the house.

Evelyn switches the external lights from white to red to alert Lee and Marcus of danger at the farm, all the while struggling to control her contractions and the agony of her foot injury. Arriving at the farm house and seeing the red lights Lee instructs a visibly frightened Marcus to go and create a diversion using already primed fireworks, while Lee runs off to locate his wife.

Evelyn has taken refuge in a bath tub upstairs desperately trying to conceal her cries of alarm and from the pain of her increasingly frequent contractions. A creature makes its way upstairs sensing she is close by, only to then be diverted by the sound of the explosive fireworks outside. Lee finds Evelyn cowering in the shower cubicle swaddling their newborn son. He carries mother and baby to the soundproof basement that he constructed specifically for the baby, lays the baby to sleep in a soundproof box, and tends to his wife's wounds and settled her down to sleep.

Regan returns to the farm having also been alerted by the fireworks in the distance. She locates Marcus and they both take refuge on top of a grain silo, lighting a fire to draw their father's attention, but it quickly goes out. Regan grows inpatient and refuses to wait around for her Dad, while Marcus pleads with her to stay. Pacing around the roof top of the silo, a hatch door gives way causing Marcus to fall in, and he quickly begins to sink beneath the grain deposits. Regan jumps in to rescue her young brother and they both cling to the fallen hatch door to avoid being pulled under the grain again. The noise from this has drawn a creature to the silo which bursts its way in through the side wall and attacks them. By now the children are cowering under the upturned hatch door to afford themselves some protection. Earlier in the day Lee had given Regan a repaired cochlear implant with the hope of restoring her hearing to some degree, which had failed to work as planned (again!). In proximity to the creature, Regan's makeshift repaired implant emits a very high frequency and ear piercing sound that quickly wards off the creature, so allowing the children time to escape the silo and reunite with their father.

The creature returns and Lee stands his ground, so allowing the children to take refuge in a pick up truck. He attacks the creature with an axe, but is tossed away like a rag doll. The creature diverts its attention to the pick up truck and its human contents. Lee rises to his feet, signals his message of love for his daughter and son in sign language and then yells out loud so drawing the creature away from the children and sacrificing himself in the process. The children make it back to the farmhouse and their mother.

The creature returns to the farmhouse in search for its prey. Reagan is down in the basement with the rest of the family, amidst her fathers security monitors, radio broadcast equipment, her fathers notes, newspaper clippings and his equipment for repairing her cochlear implants. The creature makes its way down the stairs to where the family is hiding in absolute silence. It dawns on Regan from her previous experience in the silo, that the power of the boosted feedback from her implant fed through a microphone would ward off the creature. She ramps up the amp, turns up the microphone and places her implant to the mic sending the creature into a painful frenzy from which it collapses in a heap on the floor before them. The creature however, rises again, and so Regan repeats the process so further disorienting the creature long enough for Evelyn to blast it with a shotgun to the head, killing it dead. The images on the security monitors show two other creatures approaching at speed towards the farmhouse, but this time Evelyn and Regan know what to do!

The Sound Production guys must have had a field day coming up with creative ways to convey silence on this film, and they have succeeded on just about every level in a film almost entirely devoid of dialogue, save for about a dozen lines of conversation. This film is easily up there with the recent 'Get Out' and 'Don't Breathe' and here Krasinski has proved himself a master of Direction, Screenwriting and Acting in this tense, taught, tightly woven suspenseful frightener that delivers an original story matched with strong, grounded and believable performances, pitched against  a convincing creature feature that would easily match the 'Alien' in any bar brawl. This is a must see film for many reasons and you won't be disappointed - its a simple story of local survival amidst an global wipeout, told convincingly and intelligently, with characters you can relate to, enough scares to keep you on the edge of your seat, and to prompt further thought after the credits have rolled.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-