Survival instinct is a curious thing, huh? Today’s heroine, Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) has cancer, hospice level cancer; it’s likely she won’t last the year. Yet, when the monsters come and destroy 90% of all audible life in the first hour, Samira still clings desperately to whatever she’s got left. There’s no way those giant spider-y jerks are gonna take her prematurely.
The scene is Manhattan. Busy, blustery Manhattan, full of people and congestion, and activity and NOISE. The establishing shot tells us NYC averages a roar at all times. Well, the ear monsters sure aren’t gonna like that.
Samira’s hospice club is bussed in from Jersey to catch a Broadway show. They’ve been cheated; it’s a puppet show. You know how when you’re going to see “Hamilton” and instead you get puppets? That. Nobody blames Samira for being disillusioned. But she didn’t come to Manhattan for nothin’. She wants pizza. And even the apocalypse ain’t gonna stop her.
Within moments, the creatures rain from the sky like super hail or an intense meteor shower. In this non-Krasinski (John Krasinski co-wrote but did not direct) edition we learn a great deal more about the anatomy of these monsters. Quadrupedal, sightless -not even light sensitive- each the siz
e of a VW bug with an ear canal as big as a basketball. No wonder these guys hate noise. Did I mention they are super-strong, super-destructive, super-fast, and super-intolerant? That’s not a great combination in NYC.
TBH, it’s not a great combination anywhere, but NYC exacerbates most everything to the nth power. And how many of these things are there? Thousands. And how noise-sensitive are they? They can hear a briefcase open in a turnstyle from the top of a skyscraper. And how indestructible are these things? Nobody really knows. And our subject is a woman dying of cancer and her loyal cat, Frodo. Midway through the film, A Quiet Place: Day One adds a dimension, introducing Eric (Joseph Quinn), an English law student. He has the benefit of not knowing anybody dying in the attack personally, but is at a complete loss in these environs for home is an increasingly large ocean away. Not having any idea of how to proceed, he sticks to Samira, with surprisingly human results. Well, geez, what else could he do? The wifi is down.
This Quiet Place is simpler than the first two; here it’s not about carving out a life, but instead, “let’s just make it to tomorrow.” The film is testimony to the idea that films do not have to be complex to carry an audience; they just have to keep moving. Day One is an intense film, and a riveting watch. It’s not a perfect film, but I gotta say, if all horror were like A Quiet Place films, I’d enjoy horror.
There once was a woman suffering cancer
Long past dreams of becoming a dancer
When the monsters arrive
She decided, “survive”
For death is life’s greatest enhancer
Rated PG-13, 100 Minutes
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Writer: Michael Sarnoski, John Krasinski, Bryan Woods
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Librarians, and other very quiet people
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The kind of blabbermouth who insists upon sitting right behind me in a movie theater
