A Quiet Place Day One (2024)

This is a worthy follow-up to the two previous films, set in the world that suddenly has to be silent. The original "A Quiet Place" was one of the best films of its year and continues to inspire us in the performance of Emily Blunt. She does not make an appearance in this film which is set in New York City on the day that the aliens first arrived on Earth. Our new protagonist is named Samira, and she has a different set of problems that she has to manage. She doesn't have children and she's not pregnant, but she does have a cat and I don't think this is much of a spoiler, but she is also terminally ill. This puts a new face on the survival theme of the movie, and the perspective is an interesting one especially when contrasted with the other characters she encounters.

Samira our lead character is played by actress Lupita Nyong'o, who speaks sparingly and communicates so much with her eyes and body language. She is a defiant patient at a hospice facility, she is much younger then most of the other clients there, and this displacement has given her additional attitude toward the world around her. It may in fact be that defiant attitude that helps her navigate the crumbling city as the auditory predators are taking out the population rapidly.

The characters in this version of the story don't have the advantage of speaking sign language, they have to rely on descriptive gestures, pointing, and occasional notes on whatever surface is available for them to write on. This adds an extra wrinkle to the story and makes every potential attempt to communicate a bigger threat because of the high concentration of aliens in the city. Having established that the waterfall effect blocks the aliens ability to hear low-spoken dialogue, there is an interesting sequence where Samira encounters two children hiding inside of a water fountain and she tries to direct them to a safer spot. In the long run we never discover what happens to the vast majority of people that she encounters. We do get a dramatic moment with some of the people that she knew from the hospice, but those folks on the streets are not likely to make it to the next scene, at least not for long.

It is probably essential that another person be involved in the story for us to be able to engage with the character.  About a third of the way into the film Samara encounters a frightened law school student from Great Britain who is so uncertain about what to do that he is practically in tears. The two of them form a tenuous alliance in order to navigate the treacherous streets of New York City in an attempt to reach a pier on the river. Supposedly boats are being used to transport survivors off of Manhattan Island, where it appears that the aliens have trapped themselves due to their inability to navigate water. We know from other films that this is it best a short-term solution, but that's not really part of this particular story. (Although there is one link to the second film)

The first act of the film sets up the conflict and establishes Samira's character, it also provides us with a lot of action beats. During the second act the action moments are more subdued but there are occasional outbursts of violence and more people are sacrificed to the narrative of overwhelming odds facing them. One of the best moments in that opening act involves Samira taking in a marionette puppet show, that she has been maneuvered into attending with other patients at the hospital. Although very resistant to the idea, she did become entranced by a couple of moments in the show, which of course is exactly the point at which the alien invasion arrives. The contrast between human ability to create something beautiful and the aliens ability to destroy everything that humans have created is exactly what was needed at the start of the story. We also get a sense of how headstrong Samira is because of the way she handles being dragged to the puppet show.

The movie is not quite as frightening as it's two predecessors, in large part that's because we already know what the rules are concerning the aliens. We also see the alien creatures far too much in the light of day, and up close. So it is mostly the sudden lightning-like appearance of the aliens when alerted by a sound that gives us a jump scare or two along the way. Most of the fright that takes place in this film is a result of anxiety as we watch the characters that we are growing to care about, struggle to hide and remain silent in the face of the threat. Djimon Hounsou has two brief scenes in the film,  in the first act, a moment of desperation changes him forever, but in the final act, we see that fear and survival instincts have not eliminated his humanity. 

I can recommend the film as a piece of tense theater with two central performances that are very effective. Our terminally ill hospice patient and her frightened companion the British law student, are an unlikely match, but in the long run they show us that humanity can exist even in the worst circumstances, and even between people with very little to connect them,  that is ,except maybe a cat.

A Quiet Place

Here is a film that has no more than a half dozen characters. There are maybe twelve lines of dialogue in the film. For the first third of the movie there really is no score. And the film manages to build suspense, create character and provide enough exposition for us to understand what is going on. That my friends is a well written story. There may be a couple of plot holes or inconsistencies but once the idea has grabbed a hold of you, it does not let go until the end. Maybe you can worry about minor quibbles after you catch your breath and relax your body and grip on the armrest. Director and co-screenwriter John Krasinski has made a modern horror classic. It is limited on gore but rich in suspense and ideas.

The premise of the film is set up very nicely in the introduction of the film. There is a screen shot that mentions a day count, but that is all. Everything else is laid out for us in silence. The children are kids, but one of them is sick. The older sister is enjoying shopping in the venue but is also watching out for her youngest brother. The parents are attentive to not making a sound and when a potential noise disaster is averted, everyone seems to heave a sigh of relief. It is just kids being kids that leads to a disaster and starts us into the darker paths of the story.

Millicent Simmonds is a tween actress who has to carry much of the story. She is a deaf girl playing a deaf girl but that is just appropriate casting, it does not diminish the performance. She has to convey the attitude of a burgeoning teen with facial expressions and shoulder shrugs. She nails it. There is a shadow of guilt that haunts her and during the course of the film, she pulls away from her father a bit because of how she thinks he sees her. Krasinski as the father in the story is as loving as a parent can be, but the self talk that only a teen can create is the focus of this relationship. There are two resolutions in the film, one for the personal relationship and one for the horrifying threat that the family faces. They are tied together by the same device, but Krasinski has written himself a heroic moment that will pull at you like crazy. When Simmonds realizes how she has mistaken her father, despite all the evidence of his love her, it is a great acting moment from the young star of the movie.

Everything in the film depends on the family remaining silent. The plot element that challenges this need the most sets up the climax of the film. This is where Emily Blunt gives one of the greatest horror film performances ever. She is not simply reacting to what happens, she is at the center of these events. The courage of a mother was shown to be a spectacular character arc in "Aliens", well this one could easily sit beside that film. The story adds tension upon misstep, followed by relief and then even greater tension. Half of this is played out on the face of the lead actress. The rest she manages in a physical performance that had to be very challenging. The final image of her in the movie will make you glad you sat thru the previous ninety minutes.

OK, there are a few plot problems concerning electricity and the parents key decisions regarding the family. The focus on their farm makes sens but there seems to be an attempt to contact others in multiple ways, and we don't exactly know what that is supposed to accomplish. Human beings inevitably make noise other than speaking, and while the film meticulously shows us the efforts made by the family to keep quiet, a draft in the Spring could sent this out the window in an instant, and no real answer is ever provided for such inconsistencies. None of that really matters however because the slowly building tension and the moments of suspense keep us enthralled and that's what a horror film should do. That the film also addresses issues of love and redemption make it all the more powerful. You can expect to see this film on my end of the year list. If I were not so afraid of shouting after seeing this, I'd shout at all of you who haven't gone to a theater yet.