A Quiet Place: Day One (Review)
I feel I should preface this by saying I’m not the biggest fan of this franchise. I thought A Quiet Place was an all time theater experience (getting a packed theater to all be quiet is an achievement that can’t be ignored), but isn’t nearly as impactful upon rewatch (not trying to say it’s a bad movie though). A Quiet Place: Part II I didn’t enjoy much at all. The thrills just weren't there for me, everyone in the movie felt so hollow with not much to do (though you feel that in the first one as well), and I felt it ended right when things actually got interesting. I know I'm in the minority here, but these movies just haven't hit me as hard as I hope they would, especially with such a great concept.
That being said, I actually thought A Quiet Place: Day One was very solid! It was a very welcome surprise, especially with it going a route that was unexpected to me. And I think most people will feel the same, despite some small shortcomings.
I feel the trailers haven't given much details so I'm going to be very brief here. Set way before the events of the first two films, we follow Lupita Nyong'o's Sam, a callous woman (at first) with a cute cat named Frodo who finds herself deep in the city of New York as the inevitable invasion of brutal alien creatures take place, and the noisy city quickly becomes a place of rubble and despair with survivors hiding and, of course, staying quiet. Soon she finds herself on a journey of survival throughout the city, with Joseph Quinn's Eric tagging along.
The biggest thing I would urge readers to know is this: do not go into this expecting large scale stuff. Going into this, that was exactly what I was expecting, and we do get a bit of that in the movie's first opening minutes. But, to my surprise, this movie is actually pretty small-scale. Yes, there are more people we follow this time around (everyone one of them engaging I should say) and we do definitely get glimpses of the bigger picture, like crowds of people fleeing to safety or bridges being destroyed throughout the city. But the movie is far more interested in Sam's journey, as well as Eric, although he doesn't get introduced for a while. I'm not saying this as a negative, I just think people should know that going in. It largely sticks with the same formula that this franchise has used with so far.
This time around though, I felt the characters were much stronger than the previous two. You latch onto all of them pretty easily and are invested in both their survival as well as what they are going through. Sam's character is another surprise, as what she's going through is very unique in a movie set around the end of the world. It's not something I feel I've seen before, and it makes it engaging to go through the whole movie, even if, at first, her reasoning for the journey seems silly. By the end of the movie, I completely understood, and was rooting for her the whole way. That's largely in part due to Lupita Nyong'o's incredible performance. It feels like a waste of time saying this, because if she's in something it's pretty much automatic that she's going to crush it. But seriously. She carries this entire movie. Well, her and that adorable cat. If you're one of those that get easily invested in animals in movies, that cat is going to be the main source of tension for you guys. Trust me.
The rest of the cast is also great. Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou are fantastic in their brief time (once again Hounsou is underutilized in a movie!). But Joseph Quinn's (the breakout star of last season's Stranger Things) performance is right up there with Nyong'o's. His character, Eric, doesn't get explored nearly as much as Sam. But he's a perfect dichotomy to Sam that adds to the two's journey and is the reason for the movie's most tender and emotional moments. If Quinn didn't knock it out of the park here, those small moments wouldn't be nearly as good.
Those smaller moments are the strongest part of the movie, to me. While John Krasinski did help with the story of Day One, he wasn't in the director's chair this time around. Instead that was given to Michael Sarnoski, who only directed one movie prior to this (the very excellent Pig). Much like that movie, it's in the moments of human connection where Sarnoski's direction really shines. Whether it's a scene involving yelling out cries of grief in a thunderstorm or a heartwarming silent part in an empty bar, it's hard not to get wrapped up in the emotions that, much to my surprise, actually had me choke up a little. It's not like this franchise hasn't tried to hit those emotional beats before. It's just this time I actually felt it.
But it's not just there where the movie shines. The sound design, once again, is the technical star of the show. The aliens (do these things have a name?) feel more menacing and creepy than they ever have before, whether it's a ton of them or one getting that close to someone's face it makes you hold your breath. The doomsday feeling is definitely there, reminding me of Cloverfield or Spielberg's War of the Worlds. There's also some shots here that are seriously breathtaking. There's a lot of close ups during the mayhem, and some scenes where I really couldn't tell what was going on. But some shots, like a pitch black New York City lit up by occasional lightning, or a horde of monsters charging on rooftops, are awe inspiring. One shot in particular, involving an alien slowly descending down some stairs, gave me goosebumps.
Of course, this is still a horror movie, and Sarnoski does have some great moments there. This isn't our first time seeing the beginning of the end, as the prologue to Part II also takes place around this time. But that whole thing left me cold, and I can't say the same for Day One. Maybe it's just the moment where this turns into another Quiet Place movie feels a lot more impactful here, since we do get a lot of the noisy New York City prior. And there are moments here with tension that are way better than the previous entry and, dare I say, the first (again, that fucking cat). But not everything lands. I don't want to say this franchise is already running out of gas, as I'm sure there's more you can do with this premise, but I couldn't help but feel like that at times. It starts to get pretty repetitive after a while. A monster is nearby, people are trying to tip toe their way around, someone accidentally makes a noise, a chase ensues. There are ways Sarnoski and company find a way to make it unique (I was pretty tense sometimes still), but by the time the movie was reaching its predictable ending, I wasn't finding myself that scared.
Despite those minor gripes, I still found A Quiet Place: Day One to be a very solid, and welcome surprise. It's not going to change your life or anything, but is still a good time at the movies (also, it's under two hours, so it's a breeze). The emotional story of its central characters is pretty fantastic, and while they don't all land, there's plenty of tension and scares here to get you holding your breath. If you're a fan of this franchise, I think you'll definitely enjoy this.
