If you spend enough time working in Hollywood, you will eventually learn from your mistakes and apply those lessons to a future project. That's something producer Brad Fuller experienced, as he learned not to spoon-feed exposition to audiences in John Krasinksi's A Quiet Place from the backlash he saw when the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th showed young Jason Voorhees. In fact, in a recent interview with CinemaBlend to discuss the development of A Quiet Place, Fuller explained:
Our audience is smarter than most people think they are. You don't have to explain everything. There's always a backlash. For example, on Friday the 13th, where we showed young Jason, we loved those scenes, but there was so much backlash. 'Why do you have to show the backstory? Why do you have to tell us that?' I think in this movie where we don't have dialogue it offers you the ability to not have to explain as much because you can't, and it feels like people are enjoying the fact that we don't say where these aliens are coming from or other things. So, I think we give a lot of credit to our audience and hope that they will be satisfied and they get it.
Audiences have arguably become far more discerning than they sometimes get credit for being. In the case of horror fans, in particular, Brad Fuller has learned that the process of unloading an avalanche of backstory isn't necessarily required to sell a scary scenario. The folks behind 2009's poorly-reviewed Friday the 13th learned this when audiences ended up hating the young Jason Voorhees portion of the movie, so Fuller made sure that A Quiet Place didn't go heavy on explaining who the aliens are or why they are on Earth.
Of course, it's also worth noting that this smarter take on the traditional horror narrative comes with its own unique set of challenges. Perhaps most notably, by veering away from heavy exposition and trying not to spoon-feed information to the audience, A Quiet Place has turned into an incredibly difficult film for the producers to market. There are very few scenes that actually get the point of the movie across in a trailer, and that presented some hurdles leading up to the film's release. Alas, with A Quiet Place's premiere now upon us this weekend, we will see if audiences respond to this horror approach.
With those lessons and John Krasinksi's deft directorial hand in mind, audiences will see the new terror when A Quiet Place debuts in theaters this weekend on April 6. Here's our full review of the film, and you can also check out our reaction roundup to read what other folks are saying about it online.
