My 12-year-old twins decided, out of the blue, that they wanted to watch a horror movie. (This, after years spent mostly watching Marvel superheroes and Japanese animation.) Horror is not a genre that my wife and I typically enjoy, but the kids had heard from friends that A Quiet Place was a good one. After checking a few trusted online sources to see how appropriate it is for children their age, we decided to give it a try.

It's actually very good, in large part because of all the things it doesn't show. There are monsters, yes, but they're more in line with Alien rather than Aliens in terms of how much they're actually seen on screen. Yes, there are some creepy images, with lots of sharp teeth and some extremely closeup shots of the inside of a monster's ear hole, but director John Krasinski definitely adhered to a "less is more" approach to the film.

The movie begins on day 89 of the alien invasion. These aren't scientifically advanced aliens bent on world domination; these are feral, seemingly mindless creatures that are blind but hunt based on sound. Their hearing is exceptional. (How they arrived on Earth is never explained, although there are clues among some newspaper clippings hanging on Lee's workroom wall, nor do we learn how much of the human race is still alive.) Lee Abbott (Krasinski) and his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) lead their family on a supply run into town, primarily to get medicine for their sick son Marcus (Noah Jupe). Their daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), who is deaf, and younger son Beau (Cade Woodward) are along because, I suppose, it's not safe to leave them home alone.

The family communicates solely through sign language and faint whispers. Beau tries to get a toy space shuttle from the pharmacy shelf, but Lee forbids it, signing that the toy is too loud and therefore risky. As the parents exit the pharmacy, Regan slips the toy into his hands, but doesn't notice him grab the batteries, too. He turns it on during the walk home, to predictable results.

It's a dramatic and heartbreaking demonstration of the perils of sound.

The plot mostly unfolds on the Abbott family's farm, where Lee and Evelyn have set up a system of cameras and warning lights outside and have created a silent haven inside. It's only on rare occasions, when something even louder is nearby, that the family can talk with normal voices, so don't expect much in the way of memorable dialogue. That doesn't mean the movie isn't packed with emotion, though; the cast does a very good job of relaying their feelings through facial expressions, posture and gestures.

After that first scene, the movie jumps ahead by more than a year. The family is still devastated by Beau's death, and Regan is carrying a heavy burden of guilt because she blames herself and believes that her father blames her, too. Evelyn is very pregnant, which might not have been the wisest choice (if it was a choice) given the circumstances, but regardless, the baby is coming due. When Lee takes Marcus on an expedition to get food, Regan runs off while her mother, unaware of Regan's absence, does some of the much-needed chores ... until her water breaks several weeks early, and on her way back downstairs a single protruding nail changes the situation drastically.

I won't dig any further into the plot, but I will say that the overall silence is probably the film's greatest strength. It ramps up the tension exponentially, and it places extra demands on the actors to emote effectively and realistically. In fact, while I have no complaints about Marco Beltrami's subtle score, I felt sometimes like the music distracted from the oppressive silence. The movie might have been more effective without it.

There are some significant problems with the logic of the movie in places, especially if you stop to think about creatures who react to sound and mankind's response to that threat, but if you can lay them aside, A Quiet Place is a tense, deeply unsettling movie that hits some powerful emotional chords. Ultimately, I am glad I let the twins talk me into watching it.