A Quiet Place: Day One – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 40 minutes, Director – Michael Sarnoski

Whilst visiting New York City Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) finds herself fighting for survival alongside stranger Eric (Joseph Quinn) when one of the noisiest cities in the world is plunged into silence after the arrival of deadly aliens with ultrasonic hearing.

A Quiet Place: Day One enhances many of the things that caused an issue for me in the still-effective Part II to the 2018 hit horror. There’s a lot more sound – although less talking – once the world is plunged into silence, and we see a good deal more of the aliens with ultrasonic hearing, including the amount we see racing across and toward the screen. However, here instead of removing something from the tension of the world and silence they add to the film as we see New York City, which we’re informed in the opening text has a noise level on par with a constant scream, plunged into silence on the first day, or rather few days, of the alien residency of Earth.

We follow cancer patient Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) as a day trip from the hospice to the city sees her stay lengthened when destruction runs through the streets which are quickly covered in overturned cars, rubble and dust. The first sequence of alien attacks sees director Michael Sarnoski trade in the stillness of Pig for a much more chaotic set of events. A flurry of distant noise is intensified by the sudden impact and confusion of the moment. Little can be seen amongst the grey cloud of dust, but we know what’s there and how those nearby are likely reacting, and how that will make it all the more worse for the central character.

Wandering the streets, after being saved by criminally underused Djimon Hounsou looking for safety – and, once the bridges out of the city are destroyed, the chance to get what might be the last slice of pizza at her favourite place in Harlem – it’s not long until Sam and her cat are joined by Joseph Quinn’s law student Eric. Whilst we see a number of well-pitched chase scenes, getting across the speed and stature of the aliens in new, close-up detail that brings a new fear factor to them, particularly when directly next the characters as they’re trapped in tight spaces, including another New York subway which was clearly filmed in the London Underground, where any move could make a noise, what soon begins to unfold is a film of joint human survival.

There’s no hint of romance between the pair, or to some extent friendship, instead it’s a sense of companionship and assistance as they both, eventually, try to reach the same destination and find a way out of the city as silently as possible. The tension from previous films comes through in just how loud an often quiet noise can be in a world where silence means survival, however it also comes in the frequent shattering of glass as aliens rain down through a building the pair are trying to escape from. While we see the pair release their worries and pain by shouting during a thunderstorm perhaps the most effective scene of their helping each other is one which feels as if someone has accidentally pressed the mute button in the projection booth. Even the subtle noises feel as if they’re not there, the visuals simply being enough in comparison to how loud everything that has come beforehand must have been.

It’s a moment of comfort and safety in the latter stages where everything outside hasn’t been forgotten, but is put aside for just a few moments while the new rules are still followed. The area is relatively neat compared to the destruction and debris we’ve seen elsewhere and the vibe of the scene could be easily summed up as ‘cosy’. It’s a moment we don’t move on from quickly and is allowed to linger to show just how much the two have relied on each other, and the unspoken emotional help they’ve provided each other, over the previous couple of days, with still plenty of uncertainty in sight for the future.

These points aren’t the core focus of the film, and they don’t entirely feel as if they’re what events are building up towards. But, they do make for a key detail that’s effectively calming to spend time in away from the tension elsewhere. Playing out as a horror although at times more alike to a tense horror-themed drama or thriller with the bursts of panic that it gives us throughout the increasingly empty and broken streets of New York City. Yet, much of this does come down to the way in which we see the characters behave and interact in their panicked settings, helped by two great performances, especially from Nyong’o who once again shows that she’s a force deserving of more leading roles.

Putting us closer than ever to the aliens, and increasing their number, A Quiet Place: Day One places us in the centre of the dizzying, tense action and chaos of the world’s first noisy instincts. Helped by an parallel line of joint help and survival with strong performances from Nyong’o and Quinn.