Praised as one of the scariest movies to be released this year A Quiet Place (2018) was an obvious choice to monitor. We were curious to see if a film relying on little to no sound could bring the scares. Does a horror movie require a menacing soundtrack to add another layer of suspense or can a scene survive on visuals alone?

Test Subject: Leah

Age : 33

Gender: Female

Resting HR: 65bpm

Fears: Eyeball Gore, Frogs

Analysis:

The film starts off in a quiet place. But after a long stretch of whispering and sign language our subject hits her peak heart-rate 81bpm very early on in the film. After that jolt we wait almost forty-two minutes before any new fluctuations appear. Talk about a slow burn. After the forty-five minute mark we see our subject sustain a light walking heart-rate as some of the more suspenseful scenes begin to emerge.

*Note: There were a couple moments during the film when our subject found herself holding her breath to silence her respiration. This was the first time we’ve monitored a relaxed decrease in heart-rate while watching a fairly tense scene. The drops, however, were not significant enough to affect our subject’s average.

Conclusion:

From major plot holes to the lack of character backstory, the film, while an amazing experiment, did not raise the sense of fear and dread in our subject as we had hoped. Our team thoroughly enjoyed the film. Unfortunately we weren’t watching, we were monitoring and the numbers tell a different story. While audiences are having a wonderful experience watching a fun movie in a quiet theater, we can safely say, bring back the sound for the next one on our list.

Resting HR: 65bpm

Walking HR: 72-80bpm

Average HR during the film : 70bpm

Peak HR: 81bpm

Calories burned: 147

**FearScale reports on Heart-Rate monitoring but at times may take into account story structure, acting or plot when compiling the following results**