As she turned to reveal her profile, I felt stricken.

The mother, played by Emily Blunt, was pregnant.

She didn’t have long to go.

How would she do it?

Would they all be put at risk for one new life?

I fixated on just how difficult it would be to bring a new baby into this on-screen world: A frightening, silent landscape.

Yet here was a woman in the flush of new life.

She wasn’t panicked.

She was preparing her baby’s bedding, taking her blood pressure, cooking dinner for her family.

Evelyn Abbott’s burgeoning motherhood was an incredible reminder of humanity’s breathtaking ability to survive, even when all seems hopeless.

This was one of a handful of moments where I jumped, grabbed the armrest or held my hand up to my mouth during A Quiet Place.

Directed by John Krasinksi, who also plays the father, Lee Abbott, this film is an edge-of-your-seat journey into a dystopian future where humans are hunted by hideous creatures with stellar hearing.

Silence is the only way to survive and there are countless moments throughout the film where an accidental bump or crash heralds an anxious wait for the arrival of the creatures, or not.

We never learn the backstory of the family of four we follow.

The film simply starts at “Day 89” as they quietly search for medicine and supplies in an abandoned shop, using sign language to communicate.

The older sister, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), is deaf and has a cochlear impact that no longer works. Perhaps this is how the family have survived when others have not.

When the youngest child begs to bring a toy space shuttle home, it falls to his father to explain why he can’t.

“Too loud,” Lee Abbott tells his young son, who looks crestfallen.

As they head out into the street, Regan picks up the toy and hands it to her youngest brother with a wink.

Last to leave the store, little Beau (Cade Woodward) also grabs the batteries his father removed.

The family walk barefoot into the forest, keeping quiet and reducing the sound of their footfalls by sticking to trails of sand.

The silence is broken when Beau switches on the clandestine toy.

Its blurting siren quickly attracts the insect-like creatures and the little boy is killed before his father can reach him.

It’s an incredible opening to the film, and the little boy’s slaughter is a reminder that no-one is really going to be safe over the next 90-odd minutes.

Fast-forward to “Day 470-something” and we witness the family’s rich but silent life.

Lee has pasted newspaper articles about the creatures across a basement radio room, where he tries to SOS other countries without success and works to repair Regan’s cochlear implant.

He's looking for a weakness.

The entire farm is networked with lights that glow according to whether or not the creatures are nearby.

There are horror movie tropes: abandoned cars and machinery, a grain silo, rickety old farmhouses and fields of corn.

The below ground room where the baby will live has been lovingly soundproofed with newspaper clippings and furnished with an oxygen canister that will pump air into a little, cushioned box.

Ultimately, this film has a family at its heart.

They are tangible characters, with foibles and rough-edges forged in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

The parents are driven by the fear they cannot protect their children. The children just want to be loved by their parents.

Despite knowing so little about where they come from, the characters are developed in such a way that the audience feels incredibly connected to them.

Their loss, pain and fear plays out on screen.

Every setback aches and there are, along with the heart-starter moments, some incredibly moving scenes.

Krasinksi’s silent reverie is a masterstroke. I can’t wait to see more great films from him.

A Quiet Place was, hands down, the best cinema experience I have had in ages.

Don’t miss out!