A Quiet Place: Day One
Mark White
A Quiet Place: Day One, from its title to its pedigree, promised to show audiences how the alien invasion that literally silenced the world came to pass, with the drama and discovery that leads us to the intimate dramatic thrillers witnessed with the Abbott family. Sadly, the film breaks this silent promise to audiences with an apocalypse that unfolds largely off-screen and offers no answers or new information. It is a story with hushed (and fewer) scares and notably muted tension, but one that echoes with human suffering, empathy, and survival in the form of two very strong performances, without which the film would be a waste of time.
Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) is a terminally ill cancer resident at a hospice on the outskirts of New York City. Bitter, resigned to imminent death, and keeping everyone from her fellow residents to her nurse at arm’s length, she agrees to participate in a field trip from the hospice to the ‘Big Apple’ – her last trip to the city she ponders aloud – with the chance to relive old haunts and memories, which includes a slice of pizza at a well-loved pizzeria on 2nd Avenue… and that is when the sonically hypersensitive aliens of the series invade the New York skyline, arriving in a dramatic meteor shower, destroying – and hunting – everything in the noisiest city on earth. As Samira struggles with the horror of the situation, as well as waning medication to mask the pain of her cancer, a chance encounter with British law student Eric (Joseph Quinn) (Stranger Things, Dickensian) provides uneasy companionship and support, as both try to survive in a new world where silence may not be enough keep safe.
Upfront, this story is not the horror drama that the first two films in the series are; Day One jettisons much of the sci-fi-tinged tension, horror-fueled pacing, and clean cinematography and minimal set pieces of the first two films for larger scale, computer-generated destruction, skylines, and hordes of the blind alien hunters. There are no major landmarks in the set pieces to lend credibility to the setting however. Perhaps its because we cannot simply destroy New York for every movie set there, or that using the city as we would wish to for every movie is difficult due to cost and availability, but it is hard to really feel like we are in New York for much of the film – something just feels off.
The apocalypse is shown on screen in an uneven mix of loud ‘hunting’ scenes, from the initial invasion, to other scenes where massive crowds of New Yorkers are being attacked as they move en masse trying to find safety. Fewer scenes of singular, focused tension with a character struggling to evade the aliens do exist, and while mostly effective – a flooded subway connection sequence works quite well – they are nowhere near as gripping or sweat-inducing as anything found in the previous installments. Frustratingly, major elements of the apocalypse that would expand the understanding of the invasion – its scope, how mankind learned about the role of sound etc – is all conducted off screen, leaving audiences to simply accept that mankind somehow catches on very quickly. While thrillers often make leaps with details to maintain suspense for an audience razor sharp, the fact is that most people watching Day One already know that sound is the key and want to know how we came to that understanding. Instead, what we get are flashes of the invasion, and then lengthy stretches of character moments with Samira and Eric living in this world – nothing that truly expands upon it.
Prequel breaks a silent promise with audiences with no new answers, hushed scares, and muted tension, but loud echoes of humanity from two very strong performances
Thankfully, Nyong’o and Quinn are equally complex and magnetic performers that illuminate very specific characters for audiences to invest in, and in such a short time. Nyong’o bristles and fights with grit as Samira, slowly softens to reveal a young woman being robbed of her remaining life after suffering much family grief and tragedy, clinging to warm memories as a comfort; Quinn’s shellshocked young law student may be crippled with fear at times as he faces danger in a city where he knows no one, but is also incredibly empathetic and charming, connecting with Samira in ways that allow them to genuinely emote, dealing with this new terrifying world, as well as getting Samira through the final phases of grief – and her impending death. Without spoiling anything, look to a pantomimed scene between the two as a showcase for both actors as the characters relate so much in such a short space. It is a joyous and emotional scene carried on the warmth and charm of both Nyong’o and Quinn – credit to Sarnoski here as well, whose specific and complex capturing of character in Pig stands out still as an example of modern cinematic excellence, gets everything he can out of Samira and Eric in Nyong’o and Quinn – their dynamic lifts the film at every turn, making the ‘Quiet Place’ elements of the film that are reductions of the series’ hallmarks more solidly effective, if not slightly lacking in tension, or at times, common sense – the audience care for Samira and Eric, and that matters most. Side note: Djimon Hounsou’s Henri from Part Two is connective tissue to the series only in Day One, sadly serving as just a familiar reminder of what lies ahead in Part Two.
When John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place first crept into cinemas back in the summer of 2018, sold-out crowds were often reported coming out of screenings with full bags of popcorn, condensation-soaked cups of soda, and unopened boxes of candy, for the intense atmosphere Krasinski cages the audience in with use of an ingenious concept based on sound design (and a lack of sound for most of the film’s runtime), afraid to make any noise that would break the terrifying rules put before them: if they hear you, they hunt you. In returning with Part Two, Krasinski showed us what the invasion looked like in small town America while continuing to develop and challenge the Abbott family in the face of new challenges. With the prequel carrying the subtitle of Day One, a promise was indeed made to give us more of ‘the what’ and ‘the why’ of the alien invasion and perhaps give us more of a science fiction action film showcasing humanity’s reckoning with the sonic-seeking alien killers. The expectation in the title leans toward the film being a Cameron-esque prequel not unlike Aliens to play against Krasinski’s Scott-like Alien world building and terror from the first two A Quiet Place films. But instead we get a visual repeat, from the invasion itself to a few sequences as well, of the former two films without advancing the world of the series at all. But we also are treated to two new, fascinating, fully-realized characters living in the Quiet universe – all the rules and dangers attached – who are genuinely interesting and worth cheering on, and that ultimately make a film that is a marked step down in the series engaging enough to experience. Too bad it simply does not offer more…
Final Thought
Echoes of Part Two make Day One a ‘quiet’ and average, if slightly repetitive addition to the canon. Let’s see if Krasinski's planned Part Three brings bigger noise in 2025.