Review: A Quiet Place - Day One
Hear How It All Began.
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film A Quiet Place: Day One. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
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THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: As New York City is invaded by alien creatures who hunt by sound, a woman named Sammy fights to survive.
QUICK REVIEW
Its been a couple weeks since we got John Krasinski’s IF out in theatres and now another creation of his releases this weekend. But instead of him directing this addition to A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II, Michael Sarnoski (who gave us one of my favorite films of 2021 in Pig) is in the director’s chair.
A Quiet Place: Day One is meant to be a prequel for the horror franchise that, in theory, should expand on the lore of the previous movies and therefore justify its existence in doing so. But I cannot honestly say it accomplished that feat. Watching this movie is basically like watching a retread of parts of the previous films, but without the family dynamic and growing lore on the monstrous aliens.
Yes if you’re a big fan of the franchise you’ll get a lot of what you’re expecting and love about these movies. It features some great creature design and CGI, amazing sound design as expected, and anyone coming for the tension these movies deal in will get those moments. You’ll get scary chase scenes, monster destruction, and moments that will make you gasp in fear for our protagonists.
The problem is we’ve seen all this before three movies in, and for an “origins movie” the film does nothing to give us more insight into what started all of this other than aliens crashing down onto Earth and eating crowds of people. We don’t even really get more insight into Djimon Hounsou’s character, who appears in the second film.
The movie also feels like it deals in more jump scares than the last two films did, and there were scenes that felt like forced moments (a lot of them thanks to Frodo the cat) of getting the creatures to come chasing, whereas in the previous movies I felt like those moments happened more naturally as a story beat. In particular there is a moment where a major death happens, and it doesn’t really feel like we get the time to breathe the grief and impact that character’s passing should have on our other surviving protagonists.
If anything makes this movie stand out on its own it’s the clear influence of Sarnoski’s storytelling when it comes to his characters. As we get some moments for them in this that reminded me of the kind of quiet meditation we saw in his previous feature, Pig. It helps that leads Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn turn in great acting performances as well, but there is something more deep in the middle of all the monster horror.
Nyong'o’s character is a dying patient and what drives her to survive this apocalyptic mayhem is not preservation so much as wanting to get one last moment of life before she passes on. This creates a journey between her and Quinn that would otherwise seem foolish but comes together to create a touching moment that ultimately ends up a meditation of life and dying with dignity. You have to be patient and wait around for the third act for this to really exhibit itself, but it’s actually worth the wait and in my mind the biggest redeeming factor about the film.
But the movie’s faults in not really doing much new and sticking to retreads from the last two movies does rear its ugly head in the climax. By the time the credits roll I just didn’t see what this movie does to expand on this world this franchise is still building.
I came away from this not really understanding what the point was to have this prequel. But I also can’t say the fans of these movies won’t get what they came for, and I have to give massive props to the tender character moment the film builds up to. Like its predecessors i’ll initially give A Quiet Place: Day One a straight up grade of B. Not B+, not B-, just a B.
INITIAL GRADING
