The use of silence to build suspense and tension in horror movies precedes the invention of sound. Since silent horror films don’t follow the general rules employed by horror films, like frightening music and diegetic sound, and present terror in an unadulterated manner, they can be incredibly frightening.
‘A Quiet Place’, the series developed by John Krasinski, employs sound in several ways to give viewers a dramatic and engrossing experience. The characters in this series need to be quiet to refrain from drawing the attention of sound-sensitive monsters. This soundless technique is used successfully to create tension and terror which runs as an undercurrent throughout the series.
A sparse sonic tapestry is used in the movie to contrast abrupt, natural sounds with eerie silence. The outcome is a truly original creation that provides movie buffs with a new experience. Stalwarts such as Emily Blunt and young actors like Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe lead the cast followed by the likes of Djimon Hounsou and Lauren-Ashley Cristiano.
Extraterrestrial creatures
Cashing on the popularity of the original and sequel, ‘A Quiet Place’ (2018) and ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ (2020), came the spin-off prequel ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ in the hands of a new director, Michael Sarnoski, in June 2024. It answers many questions which may have been haunting fans of the series on how extraterrestrial creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing came to exist on Earth.
The film follows a terminally ill black woman named Samira aka Sam who finds herself trapped in the city on her return home to New York during the early stages of an invasion of mysterious creatures which hunt by sound attack. After the initial episodes of horror, which see the creatures attacking many unsuspecting people, the citizens soon realise that they can evade the attacks only if they remain silent. This is a stark contrast to the opening scene of the film which is set amid the noisy hustle and bustle of one of the busiest places on Earth – New York City.
Sam is soon joined by Eric, a British law student, who seems to be a coward at first glance but turns into an underdog to bring what Sam desires the most before breathing her last breath: a slice of pizza from Harlem. Fresh off his similarly and unexpectedly moving film ‘Pig’, writer-director Sarnoski allows that moment to linger even though it is played for a brief laugh. ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is a bittersweet story of what it’s like to truly and completely live with a death sentence. Sam is serious about the pizza, and we are invited to think her quest is absurd. However, over the following hour or so, the full significance of why the pizza is so important to Sam becomes clear.
Reliving happy memories
The sound-sensitive creatures take a back seat in this production which is dominated by Sam who is superbly played out by Lupita Nyong’o of Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ fame. Sam is approaching death and it does not matter that she is killed by the aliens or her disease. What matters is that she can fulfil her last wish by reliving the happy memories linked with her childhood.
‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ begins in the hospice care facility where Sam is staying. She is repulsed by the various death-related faces around her and irritated by the nurse who is always encouraging her to interact with people. Most of all, though, she is disgusted with her weary, resentful self for using fentanyl patches to keep her pain at bay despite knowing that death could strike at any moment. The only consoling element for her seems to be her service cat, Frodo. He is a loyal companion during her trip to New York City and remains one of the protagonists of the film with many in the audience rooting for his survival.
When the aliens begin landing and destroying New York and its people, Sam’s survival instincts take over, but in the aftermath, when the streets are quiet and sound denotes death, an unsettling silence descends upon her and the entire movie. This is the beauty of the production as amid the darkness and horror she finds another lifeline to hang onto. Eric seems at first to be the opposite of Sam, a frightened and clichéd immature youth, but he soon develops into the movie’s heartwarming and hopeful tone.
However, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’s real power ultimately lies in the moments between the alien attacks, when it focuses on the very real, diseased spectre of death. ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’, which is more lonesome, melancholic, and ultimately more potent than ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘A Quiet Place Part II’, is engrossingly preoccupied with people trying to understand what life even means in light of the possibility that it could end at any moment. This is what makes the film a truly mind-blowing experience and worth a watch.
