Exclusive: A Quiet Place director on when to use sound... and when not to (plus, why he originally wanted a lot more music in the movie)

A Quiet Place came out of nowhere earlier this year to become one of the best movies of 2018 - and certainly one of the best horror movies of all time - thanks in no small part to its use of sound.

If you haven't seen the film yet, you can probably guess from the title that sound... or the lack of it, is a big part of the storyline, but as director John Krasinski reveals in the above exclusive behind-the-scenes video, it played a much bigger role in the movie than you probably realised.

You can watch the video for yourself above, but Krasinski - who also wrote and starred in the movie - reveals that he originally wanted a lot more music in the film, but changed his mind once film composer Marco Beltrami came onboard. "We were unbelievably lucky to get Marco," says Krasinski. "Marco had done some of my favourite scores like The Hurt Locker and World War Z and these things that are big, actiony things, but have so much heart. He does that in the music."

He adds: "He wrote all this incredible music and then it was about how much music we used and when we used it and where it was more sparse and where it was more a character in the film and you feel the presence of it."

As well as the musical score for the movie, Krasinski worked hard to incorporate other sounds, which added to the overall feel of the film. "In this day and age, with the phones and everything, we just don’t get a chance to listen," he says. "So then when you’re doing a scene where no one can talk and they’re just walking through the woods and you’re recording that sound, you start to think ‘Oh my god, this is really cool’. Like, people are going to actual pay attention to this rather than just go ‘I get it, it’s woods, I get it’. And you’re like, ‘Yeah, but what does woods really sound like?’”

Now there's a question I never thought I'd ask myself. Excuse me while I go find out what the GR office really sounds like...

A Quiet Place is already out on home release in the US and is available to Download and Keep July 30 and comes to Blu-ray and DVD August 13 in the UK.

Lauren O'Callaghan is the former Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar+. You'd typically find Lauren writing features and reviews about the latest and greatest in pop culture and entertainment, and assisting the teams at Total Film and SFX to bring their excellent content onto GamesRadar+. Lauren is now the digital marketing manager at the National Trust.