Silence is golden for an unassuming new horror movie that is winning over audiences and critics alike.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world sometime in the near future, A Quiet Place stars real-life husband-and-wife duo Emily Blunt and John Krasinski as parents who must conduct a completely silent existence with their three children in order to stay alive.

Why do they have to be so quiet? Given the movie’s tagline is, ‘If they can hear you, they can hunt you’, you can probably draw your own conclusions.

Directed by Krasinski, who is best known for his role as the amiable Jim Halpert in TV series The Office, A Quiet Place has stunned critics by enjoying a whopping opening weekend box office haul of $US50 million.

That puts it behind the monumentally successful Black Panther as the second-best US box office debut of 2018. It’s also garnered a very impressive 97 per cent score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

For a film with very little dialogue, no major franchise behind it and a relatively small budget of only $22.1 million ($US17 million), that’s quite an achievement.

In fact, the notable absence of sound in the film is proving a challenge for the audiences flocking to see it – particularly when they want to indulge in a cinema snack.

“We live in a world now where you see all these movies, like Marvel movies, and there’s so much sound going on, so many explosions,” Krasinski told The New York Times.

“I love those movies, but there’s something about all that noise that assaults you, in a way. We thought, what if you pulled it all back? Would that make it feel just as disconcerting and just as uncomfortable and tense?”

Short answer: yes.

“A Quiet Place was good but do NOT bring kettle chips to the movie because it WILL BE loud and people WILL notice how fast you’re eating,” Twitter user Molly Stukey advised.

“I managed about three kernels of popcorn throughout,” another tweeter concurred.

PSA to everyone going to watch A QUIET PLACE in cinemas – don’t buy nachos.

Nachos are amazing but every crunch will make an audible, distracting noise in a film that’s very quiet. Be considerate to other viewers and yourself. Enjoy this film with the silence it demands.

— Faisal Hashmi (@FaisalHashmi) April 8, 2018

Trying to eat popcorn during A Quiet Place was exhausting pic.twitter.com/A5L537NBOa

— Dane Cardiel (@danecardiel) April 8, 2018

anytime I tried biting into my reese’s pieces while watching A Quiet Place I felt like I was risking the safety of the theater

— Nate Z (@NathanZed) April 8, 2018

On the flip side, the lack of sound has ensured the film has a captive audience from start to finish.

“In an era of distracted viewing when cinemagoers often treat cineplexes as extensions of their living rooms, John Krasinski’s hushed thriller not only compels active viewing but rewards it – or make that active listening,” Slate reviewer Sam Adams wrote.

The sound editors worked to ensure the majority of the sounds the audience hear are the sounds the characters themselves are hearing – a particular feat when it came to portraying the auditory experience of young character Regan, who is deaf and relies on a cochlear implant.

Given the shoot required authentic ambient noise, crew members were asked to stay motionless and inaudible so as not to ruin each take.

And actors had to rely heavily on their physical performance skills, communicating predominantly through sign language and facial expressions.

The film was doubly scary for Blunt and Krasinski, who had never worked together prior to making the film and were both concerned about how they would gel professionally.

The risk has paid off. Krasinski is being lauded for straying away from his usual roles in romantic comedies and into the director’s chair, while Blunt is already being praised for delivering what Variety described as “one of 2018’s best leading actress turns so far”.

After the success of last year’s Oscar-winning Get Out (written and directed by comedian Jordan Peele) and Stephen King adaptation It, A Quiet Place is further evidence there’s a growing appetite for clever horror movies.

Particularly those with surprisingly comedic origins.

As one Twitter user pointed out: “Who the f*** knew two of the scariest movies of the decade would be written and directed by Jordan Peele from Key & Peele and Jim from The Office?”