Starring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe. Millicent Simmonds

Directed by John Krasinski

Paramount, out now

A family learn to live without making a sound if they are to survive a new world where monsters attack when silence is broken.

Can you hold your breath for a couple of minutes? What about ninety minutes? By the time you reach the end of this high concept fantasy thriller you’ll feel that you’ve suppressed the urge to breathe for its entire hour-and-a-half running time. And what a rush this is – ratcheting up the tension as this particular day goes from bad to worse.

Not content with just being the male lead, John Krasinski (The Office) makes his genre directorial debut, ably supported on screen by Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow) as his pregnant wife. They live to protect their children, preparing to bring another into this awful existence, while dealing with guilt, loss and despair.

The juvenile actors are great too – you can really feel the anxiety and fear in the faces of Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds as the siblings wondering what’s going to happen next, and how they can be saved. The plot is very light on exposition and we find ourselves three months into the situation, with no real explanation as to what has happened or why the creatures are here. In truth, it doesn’t really matter, as it’s all about the suspense and the jolts, which are well earned rather than cheap jump scares.

The creatures, when revealed are a combination of CGI and monster suit, sitting somewhere between mantis, Alien xenomorph and the underground beast in Mimic. Again, it doesn’t really matter if the design is derivative, as they are kept in the shadows for most of the time. Ultimately, it’s an intriguing Twilight Zone ‘what if’ B Movie idea that’s surgically executed to deliver the goods, and then some.

Verdict: Shhhh! A monster movie that never pretends to be anything more than a ghost train of jumps and scares, but also manages to squeeze in the often-neglected human angle. 9/10

Nick Joy