A Quiet Place: Day One Blu-ray Review: A Successful Prequel

Spooky movie season is upon on us and a viewing of A Quiet Place: Day One fits perfectly into my favorite time of year. The third film in the series is a little slower and slightly lacking in the personal connections of the prior films but it is a successful prequel.

Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) is living in hospice care in New York due to her terminal illness and is basically waiting to die. Reuben (Alex Wolff), one of the facility nurses, talks her into going on a group outing into Chinatown with the promise of pizza. While attending a marionette show, they get word that something is happening in the city, forcing them to return to the hospice center immediately. Shortly thereafter, mysterious creatures attack, creating chaos, death, and destruction. Samira is quickly forced to venture out on her own with her cat Frodo. Eric (Joseph Quinn), a student, comes across Frodo after encountering danger of his own. Frodo leads Eric to Samira and against her wishes sticks with her on her journey.

Special features include five short featurettes focus on the various creative aspects of the making of the film along with interspersing highlights on the main characters. There are also three extended scenes and two deleted scenes.

• “Day Zero: Beginnings and Endings” emphasizes the importance of the story taking place New York and the contrast between being the loudest city in the world and the sudden desperation for silence.
• “In the City: Chaos in Chinatown” illustrates how much effort was put into creating the different neighborhoods. They built Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, and Harlem. I was blown away because while I watching the movie, they had me completely convinced that the characters were actually in these neighborhoods rather than being on a set.
• “The Exodus: Against the Tide” continues with the astonishing endeavors it took from the special effects and art departments. Building the neighborhoods to turn around and destroy them.
• “The Long Walk: Monsters in Midtown” carries on with stressing impressive visual effects along with the work of the animal trainers. Frodo was played by two cats and it was fascinating on how they treated them as actors discussion how each cat how their own talents to be utilized differently depending on the scene.
• “Pizza at the End of the World” shares the importance of the underlying storyline of Samira searching for pizza and her love of poetry. It also provides some background on the creatures farm and the significance of it.

What is interesting about Day One is audience members who have watched the previous films already know how to deal with the alien creatures while the characters here have to discover how. Unlike the previous sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, where the audience had strong connections to the characters after rooting for them in the original film, Samira is not an initially sympathetic character even though she is dying. She is defiant and difficult. Eric helps her remember the joys of life and revisit some of the happiest moments of her past. Her transformation is extremely impactful. When one thinks the world is coming to an end but are already dying, the perspective differs from people trying to survive. The relationship between Rueben and Samira is starkly different from the relationship she ends up forming with Eric. Djimon Hounsou as Henri is the only returning character from the prior films. Seeing his initial reactions to the new reality builds a solid foundation for what is to come.

I can clearly remember seeing the first film in the theater and being terrified to eat my popcorn. It was the quietest movie-going experience I have ever experienced. Being the third film, it didn’t have that same impact but was still scary. The action sequences, creature attacks, and destruction are also tremendously remarkable. Fan of the first two films will enjoy this too.