A Quiet Place – Day One 

The nice thing about a pre-quel, like this movie, is that you don’t really have to watch the earlier films to enjoy it. For some reason I have never watched the first two A Quiet Place movies, even though they star Emily Blunt and I love her so much. After seeing the pre-quel, though, I will quickly remedy that. This film came out earlier this year and I had intended to see it in the theater but of course didn’t. It’s probably a good thing, because in some of the poignant scenes I would have been bawling my eyes out in public. I feel like there are some themes from the series that I missed, but I’m not very upset about that. 

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Us) is currently an unhappy resident at Little Firs Hospice. When offered a chance at a day trip and real pizza, she rides the company bus into town with her service cat Frodo. Before you know it, WHAM, aliens rain down on New York city and kill anything that makes a sound. There are boats leaving the island, and she tries to make it with her kitty. 

I’m being a little spare with the plot details, because it’s important to experience everything on your own, here. A lot goes on in a movie that has very little dialogue, since the aliens hunt by sound, and knowing even a little of what happens would wreck a great tension filled film. There’s a lot done really well in the film. There’s little gore, just a few splashes of blood, but a lot of emotion, bravery, and stupidity.  

One thing that really grabbed me is that anyone who is a fan of zombie movies – Me! Me! – should really like this. There are a lot of zombie tropes on display, from the opening shot of a reassuringly loud and bustling New York City, to increasingly more foreboding harbingers of disaster like driving past a huge cemetery in a city that will soon be dead, to escalating emergency sounds and imagery. After the invasion there are the requisite stupid people doing stupid things, impeccably done urban apocalypse design, and even a couple of trips to the store. The immediate aftermath of the alien storm looks a lot like when the towers fell on 9/11.  

Nyong’o is awesome, as usual, as are everyone in the film. As I mentioned before, the urban apocalypse look is better than I’ve seen since The Girl With All The Gifts. The lighting is great, the direction is taut and not pretentious, the aliens are scary and creepy looking, and the music enhances every scene and at times creates an even deeper poignancy. That cat, though.  Frodo appears and disappears, is there again, then gone, and then is used beautifully as a framing tool for the story, and then… You get the drift. He’s awesome, but a little too enigmatic.  

This is a product of the one thing that really annoyed me. Logic is off sometimes, even creating time jumps that skip needed exposition scenes, or creating Schrodinger’s Cat: he’s there and he’s not there. 

I highly recommend seeing this movie if you get a chance, especially if you’re a zombie fan. You will recognize some comfortable, well worn tropes, and appreciate the constant zing of tension because even being careful may not be enough to save you. Every aspect from acting to directing to lighting and set decoration is well done, and I will admit to getting a little teary toward the end. It also made me really curious to see the other films that I skipped.  

Available on: Paramount+, MGM+, Prime Video, plex, Fandango at Home, Row8, Apple tv 

LINKS:

• A Quiet Place: Day One – Official Website
• A Quiet Place: Day One – IMDB
• A Quiet Place: Day One – Wikipedia

CFR: In Addition

I have seen this advertised so I am glad that Cranky wrote about it. I haven’t seen this but I did see the first one. (OMG Cranky you haven’t seen an Emily Blunt movie? Wow. Come to my house.) I don’t know if I would watch this as I don’t like end of the world movies. And now I know I would worry non-stop about the cat. And wait, do you get to take a cat out on a day trip? Huh.

I’m glad Cranky liked it and I hope lots of people enjoyed it as well.