A Quiet Place: Day One: A Quiet Audience is Still the Best Litmus Test for This Horror Franchise
By John Kirk
Rating: B+
As movies teach us, there are two basic types of alien invasions.
The first involves a military conflict between technologically advanced aliens and the underdog defenders of Earth. This is usually a metaphorical call-to-arms for humanity to unite itself by channeling its innate hatred of “others” against invaders instead of each other for a change.
The second is a force of cosmic nature. A predatory species appears on Earth with no warning or plans, just the instinctual drive to devour or absorb us like monstrous locusts. Humanity somehow just must adapt and survive. This allows for suspenseful and terrifying story opportunities if done right.
In A Quiet Place: Day One, it’s still done right.
Survivors Lupita Nyong’o and Djimon Hounsou in A Quiet Place: Day One
As this is a prequel to the other films in this franchise, the film runs the gamut of what the audience expects. But even though the film’s nature is familiar (ie: avoid the monsters, don’t make a sound, rinse, repeat), it still has an edge-of-your-seat level of suspense. It’s a testament to the notion of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Which may be why original director John Krasinski felt confident leaving co-writer Michael Sarnoski with his hands on the wheel.
The story begins with our introduction to Sam (Lupita Nyong'o), a terminal cancer patient living in a hospice outside of New York. Dosed on regularly applied dermal fentanyl patches, all she wants to do is eventually fade away. When the chance comes to go into New York, see a show and get pizza, she takes it. But in due course, meteors fall from the sky and in the chaos of their arrival, terrifying monsters emerge, snatching people at every encounter.
Its predecessors had the advantage of starting in the middle of this situation. The audience was simply expected to go along with the notion that blind extra-terrestrials were on Earth hunting humans by sound.
A Quiet Place: Day One answers questions like, how did the creatures arrive? What steps were taken by the government to protect people? We also get to see what it was like in those first few hours. It’s not a lot but it is something different for the audience.
What’s a little convenient is how quickly people manage to catch on that the monsters hunt by sound. Given that New York is hardly the quietest place on Earth, you’d expect that New Yorkers wouldn’t take to that idea naturally. Also, the creatures manage to decimate the city in, well, a New York minute.
Wreckages of armoured vehicles, crashed aircraft and bodies of soldiers litter the landscape revealing how ineffective the armed forces are in protecting the population. There is only one weakness the creatures have, and if you haven’t seen the other films, it’s yours to discover.
What the film does well though is deliver a precisely balanced combination of jump scares, intense situations and confrontations with truly horrible creatures. It’s an effectively scary story, and it’s through the silence of the audience that you can measure this film’s success.
Punctuated by some powerful emotional delivery, the audience is able to connect with characters meaningfully, distracting them from convenient story factors and encouraging willing disbelief.
Plus, it’s a good standalone film. You don’t need to see the other films to enjoy this one. And if you haven’t, then this is a reasonably good place to get to know the franchise better.
As was the case previously, you’ll invariably find yourself amid the quietest of movie audiences. That alone makes it worthwhile.
But what really works is the human connection between Sam and her new friend Eric (Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn), whom she rescues from losing-his-mind terror. For some reason, alien invasions are good platforms for bringing out the best in people. Though strangers, Sam and Eric protect each other and do the things that the audience wants them to do in trying to navigate the crisis. As simple a scene as Sam giving Eric her sweater concentrates the emotionality and reinforces our connection.
In the end, alien invasion films (like zombie films) aren’t about the invaders: they’re about how we face ourselves, often, but not always, in our best light.
Even if they’re fighting off the aliens a’ la Independence Day, in some jingoistic show of plucky courage, or simply trying to survive an overwhelming force that threatens to consume the human race a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers, people’s humanity proves durable. I like to think that’s the message in this film and in the end, that’s probably the best takeaway.
A Quiet Place: Day One. Directed by Michael Sarnoski. Written by John Krasinski and Michael Sarnoski. Stars Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou. In theatres July 28.