The A Quiet Place franchise continues to impress as this film forges new territory by taking the audience back to the beginning of the alien invasion that told the word to STFU! Much like its predecessors, A Quiet Place: Day One is a tense thriller with much heart. This film features more dialogue than previous entries, given that it shows the hours just before a meteor shower brings the deadly predators, Death Angels. The majority of the plot and character development is advanced sans characters speaking. It is impressive how tense this movie makes sound and how well the performances of our two leads invests one in the outcome of their journey.
Not connecting with the prior two movies set in remote parts of the United States, this film is set in a densely populated city with millions on the small island of Manhattan. This creates an interesting scenario as the Death Angles are not able to leave Manhattan due to their inability to swim, as we learned in A Quiet Place II, and any living soul trapped on this island is silently screwed with all bridges down.
The film shows joint star power by Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, giving intense emotional performances and beautiful chemistry. Despite minimal dialogue and a tiny cast, they both sell terror and drama, making memorable sequences and moments that add some light humor, a natural human way to cope with all the violence throughout the film. Of course, I can't forget to mention the real star of this movie, Frodo. Frodo is a cute black-and-white bundle of joy and stress throughout the film. This cat practically steals the show, and audiences will connect to the cat just as much as our leads.
Director Michael Sarnoski had a challenging task to take from the previous films but also came up with a fresh perspective. His style is highly admirable, considering the much larger scale and in a different setting. Luckily, I was able to experience the film in IMAX and took impressive shots. The cinematography does a great job of presenting the storytelling that this series is known for. The loud projection of IMAX made the theater silent; no one got up to go to the bathroom, and no one ate loudly; it was almost like we all thought the monsters would come through the walls. Overall, I believe that is because Michale Sarnoksi can showcase an atmosphere of suspense, intensity, and death.
One theme from the film is that we don't give many things in life much thought because we take them for granted. These items make us happy and unite humans instead of focusing on individualism. It may be as easy as sharing a drink with someone, taking a walk, listening to music, or, in this case, Lupita’s character indulging in a few pieces of her favorite pizza from her childhood for the last time. It’s something she shared with her family before their demise and shows this depth of the character where the movie shines emotionally. Showing a real human narrative increases awareness of what we currently have in our lives. My take on this terrifying and dramatic story is that it makes the most of our short time on this Earth, and it focuses partially on the importance of human connection.
Written by Daniel Rojas