On June 28, the third installment in Hollywood’s renowned post-apocalyptic horror franchise graced the theatres of Bangladesh’s Star Cineplex.
“A Quiet Place: Day One” is a prequel to its predecessors, but adopted a beefed-up movie set thrust into the chaos of New York City as it stepped away from the familiar rural settings of the first two films.
The shift to an urban landscape breathes life into this film and modern-day elements are properly utilized.
This installment saw Michael Sarnoski putting on his director’s hat while John Krasinski continued to contribute behind the scenes as a writer and producer. He ventured out onto a considerably different path than his former partner and simply made a movie about falling in love with and over great food.
The film follows Samira, a poet and a terminal cancer patient, living at a hospice with her only relatives being her cat, Frodo, and her caretaker, Reuben. There’s something almost magnificent about the casting of Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn together, as they form an unlikely pairing that brings a lot of warmth to an otherwise somber film.
The first half an hour of the film catapults the audience into a chaotic realm where they are able to witness the initial aftereffects of the world going quiet and how every individual involved reacts differently to the changing world around them. While some of the middle sequences felt like a bunch of tropey set pieces strung together, Sarnoski still manages to make it work.
A deserted chess board, books caught in rushing water in the street’s gutter, daylight leaking through a shattered church roof. The grief of mass casualty is the loudest sound throughout the entire film.
The “Death Angels” stampede through the city enveloped in smoke and debris, a tiny bell jingling. He didn’t leave a single stone unturned to evoke the feeling of doomsday knocking on your door.
Sarnoski creates a pretty solid balance but it is not the loud intrusive sequences of his monster movie mayhem that are pushed to the forefront of the story. Rather, the more intimate and human moments are what set apart this film from its predecessors and can be recognized as his signature tool in terms of storytelling.
He makes use of Samira’s character arc to pack in some emotional punches and impart advice to the audience about accepting one’s own fleeting mortality and discovering what it means to live again.
Though I understand the sentiment behind chasing that last slice of pizza amidst an apocalypse, was she being sentimental or dense when she expected the pizza store to still be open, intact and ready to serve? Food for thought.
Regardless, Lupita Nyong’o went above and beyond to deliver a brilliant performance that the world has been yearning for.
Joseph Quinn also delivers a stellar performance. Their chemistry was especially off the charts in the more intimate scenes.
Having watched every movie of this franchise ever since the first one came out in 2018, I admit I was a bit worried to see how Sarnoski would handle the jump from a $3 million movie to $70 million movie.
Surprisingly though, “A Quiet Place: Day One” works because it prioritizes the human element above everything else whilst also being jam-packed with tension. Lupita and New York City acted as the movie’s beating heart, all in all, it was a great film.
I must mention that my friend’s cat looks a lot like Frodo so I was very invested. Had she been in the movie though, she would have been dead in eighteen seconds, tops.
The film also left me craving a fat slice of the New York–style pizza. I would like to say that I would have risked my life for it like Sam, but my yapping tendencies would not have let me survive in this post-apocalyptic universe.