John Krasinski’s debut film as a director, A Quiet Place (2018), is a stunningly creative story filled with suspense on par with work done by director M. Night Shyamalan. Although lacking Shyamalan’s career-defining twist, Krasinski’s world where every sound presents a risk is perfect for fans of the disturbing yet fascinating universes Shyamalan is known for.

The film features a family hiding from monstrous creatures attracted to sound in a post-apocalyptic world. To survive, the family must live in complete silence, using only sign language to communicate.

Throughout the film, I was gripping the armrest in anticipation, occasionally jostling my popcorn after a jump scare and literally sitting on the edge of my seat as small mistakes escalated into potentially fatal ones. Simple objects such as a nail or a lantern posed extreme threats to the small family while aspects such as the pregnancy of Emily Blunt’s character hung over the family like a guillotine waiting to fall. How can someone keep a baby completely silent? Even before that, how does someone give birth without making a sound?

Although the cast of this movie was predominantly white, A Quiet Place was a triumph for the deaf community as it featured the deaf actress Millicent Simmonds. Simmonds also taught the entire cast how to do sign language for the film.

Impressively, Krasinski himself directed, co-wrote, and starred in his own debut movie. It’s impossible to mention Krasinski without also recalling on his role as Jim Halpert from The Office. Certainly, it’s been a long journey between these two roles and this is only his first film as a director, but I’m sure we can expect more shocking work in the near future; until then, we’ll all be waiting on the edge of our seats.