JULY 4, 2024
GENRE: MONSTER
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (REGULAR SCREENING)
One of the things that worked best about Quiet Place Part II is that it didn't try to repeat a lot of the same tricks as the first one. It was a little "louder" thanks to the soundproof tank and the opening flashback, came up with some new ideas for suspense (the villains tying noisy bottles to a hero in order to keep them from moving was pretty brilliant), etc. - despite the limited concept, it was (in my opinion) just as good as the original. But for Michael Sarnoski, writer/director of A Quiet Place: Day One, he was somewhat painted into a smaller corner. How do you surprise audiences who have seen this scenario twice now, and in a prequel where they don't have systems in place to help live among these creatures?
Luckily he figured it out: basically make it a survival drama with a few monster scenes! Our hero is Sam (Lupita Nyong'o), who lives in a hospice with much older people as she battles cancer. On a day trip into the city to see a puppet show, which she only agrees to join in order to get some proper NY pizza, the scenario we saw at the beginning of Part II plays out, albeit in one of the most recognizable cities in the world instead of an all-American small town suburb. Sam and Reuben (Alex Wolff), the nurse who chaperoned them on the trip, along with Sam's cat Frodo, make their way back to the theater, where survivors have huddled and quickly learned to stay quiet (they also figure out that the creatures are blind, somehow - the movie could have used a moment to show this, as it's weird that they just seem to know it). Some helicopters fly past announcing an evacuation at the harbor, so everyone starts heading that way.
Except for Sam (and Frodo), of course. She instead decides that she wants to get the pizza she was promised, specifically from Patsy's in Harlem. It seems like a pretty foolish endeavor that will certainly get her killed, on par with Jason Lee's obsession with getting a toothpick in Dreamcatcher, but luckily Nyong'o is one of those performers who can sell this idea and not only make it believable, but even kind of reasonable. I mean, yeah, if it seemed like the world was ending and my options were "try to get past a bunch of monsters and get on a boat alongside hundreds of people who are not being as quiet as they should" or "go get pizza with Lupita Nyong'o" I'd probably choose the latter, too.
And it seems Sarnoski knew many people would feel the same way, so he actually inserts a character around the halfway point who, without any real reason to do so, decides to follow her and get pizza too. His name is Eric, and he's played by Joseph Quinn, who we all know/loved as Eddie on Stranger Things but we may not all know (I certainly didn't) that he's actually from the UK, so he gets to use his natural accent as his character is from London and came to the US for law school. Lupita, however, doesn't get to use her own speaking voice, but she gets to hold Frodo the adorable cat for big chunks of the movie, so I feel it evens out. This allows Sam a way to explain why it's important that she gets some of that pizza, and given her declining condition and sudden lack of easily available medical supplies, it doesn't need to be spelled out that monster or no, she doesn't think she'll be around much longer and wants to have this one good thing before she goes.
So it's basically one of those "Before I die I want to LIVE!" type movies, albeit smuggled into "Monster Movie Part 3." As a fan of Sarnoski's Pig starring Nicolas Cage, I was curious why he'd jump into this for his next movie, but in some ways it feels more like *his* movie than it does the previous films in this particular series. Obviously they could have hired anyone capable of delivering 90 minutes' worth of solid monster scenes, especially with the Manhattan playground to play in, but they instead went the Alien route and let a filmmaker come in and make his kind of movie in their world instead of forcing him to go through the franchise motions. Which is to say, yes, it's not as scary or suspenseful as the others, and nowhere near as quiet (a heavy rainstorm allows them to basically talk for a while, and other city sounds let them whisper fairly frequently), it's by far the most emotionally gripping. There's a scene where the two heroes wait for thunderclaps to let out frustrated screams, and it's an incredibly moving moment that had me welling up a bit.
(Speaking of the non-quiet: the score by Alexis Grapsas—who also composed Pig—is also lovely and more prominently used than Marco Beltrami's work on the first two.)
Of course, the flipside is, if you WANTED 90 minutes of monster action, then you're probably going to be disappointed. As much as I enjoyed the human drama of it all (and thank Christ, seeing a platonic male/female friendship develop and play out), even I felt that the suspense scenes could have been a little more gripping, especially since there were so few of them. There are only really four people in the movie, one of whom is Djimon Hounsou, reprising his character we meet later in the timeline, and another who dies pretty early. So the "anyone can go" feeling that the first two films had is pretty much MIA here, and the large scale attacks produce a couple of jolts but nothing that truly terrified. This also resulted in a (somewhat amusing but still a "con" instead of a "pro") first for the series, at least in my experience: the movie didn't put that same hold on the audience where we also felt the need to be totally quiet. I had a thermos with me (it was an AM screening, so coffee time!) and when I put it back down after taking a sip it made a little clunk, and only once (during one of the few "all quiet" scenes) did I feel guilty for breaking the mood. The other times I didn't even think much of it, since the movie itself only got completely quiet a few times.
For me this wasn't a dealbreaker (a surprise, sure, but not a detriment), but I can understand how it might be for others. It's a risky gambit, and I must admit I'm kind of impressed Michael Bay and co. were all on board with it - this is the least Platinum Dunes-y movie they've ever made. Luckily the box office and reviews have been good (if a little lower than the others on the latter), so hopefully if they plan to continue the franchise they can keep hiring new/interesting filmmakers and let them bring their own sensibilities to the table. There's only so many times we can watch someone try to quietly make their way across a room or open a candy bar wrapper or whatever, but there are infinite human stories to tell within a world where doing those things can get you killed. I hope we can see some more.
What say you?
P.S. If you've been to literally any movie in the past six months, you've already seen the trailer. So instead, enjoy Michael Stipe singing this classic Dashboard Confessional track!
Horror Fans
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