A Quiet Place: Day One acts as the prequel to the spine-tingling A Quiet Place films. We get to witness the day the Earth fell silent for the first time as it's invaded by sound-sensitive monsters that force mankind into hiding. It promises to be a rip-roaring ride, were it not for the fact that roaring stands to get people killed in the world of the film.
The first two A Quiet Place chillers were steered by director John Krasinski who unexpectedly emerged as a horror filmmaker par excellence. A Quiet Place: Day One swaps out many of the key creatives while retaining some familiar faces in key roles. Here's what you need to know.
Director Michael Sarnoski replaces John Krasinski as writer and director
Jeff Nichols (who helms this month's Tom Hardy drama The Bikeriders) was originally in the frame to helm A Quiet Place: Day One. However, he stepped away owing to creative differences and responsibility fell to independent filmmaker Michael Sarnoski, who writes and directs the latest franchise installment.
He scored a critical hit with 2021's Pig, eliciting a career-best and atypically subtle performance from Nicolas Cage as a former chef turned hermit who is searching for his kidnapped truffle pig. The film was lauded for its atmosphere and heartbreaking sense of melancholy with Empire's Joshua Rothkopf writing: "Quiet, unforced and delicate, Pig provides a forum for Nicolas Cage, one of our most dazzling showmen, to get serious and burrow more deeply into his talent than he has in years."
Sarnoski is expected to bring his character-driven acumen and tangible sense of environment to A Quiet Place: Day One. (Sarnoski reunites with his Pig cinematographer Patrick Scola, which hopefully guarantees some aesthetic consistency.) Original director John Krasinski, who is involved in an executive producer capacity, sought Sarnoski's directorial skills to differentiate A Quiet Place: Day One from the previous films.
“When [Krasinski] first brought me onto the project, his directive was, ‘Can you bring some of that Pig touch to the A Quiet Place universe?’,” Sarnoski tells Empire. “What he wanted was to see someone else play in the sandbox that he had created. Finding those differences was exciting. It wasn’t something that we leaned away from.”
Lupita Nyong'o replaces Emily Blunt as lead actress
A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II were centrally held together by Emily Blunt's tenacious and resourceful mother Evelyn Abbott. Along with her husband Lee (played by Krasinski in the first film), Evelyn coached her deaf young daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and son Marcus (Noah Jupe) in the art of silent survival.
A Quiet Place: Day One takes place before the events of those movies and swaps out its central character. In lieu of Blunt's Evelyn, we get Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave; Us) as cat-loving New Yorker Sam. She finds herself caught up in a horrific apocalypse as alien invaders rain down from the sky and immediately knock mankind a couple of places down on the food chain.
Supporting actors Alex Wolff and Joseph Quinn are series newcomers
Alex Wolff plays Reuben and is already a horror veteran having starred in Ari Aster's runaway demonic hit Hereditary (2018). Horror fans will remember the disturbing scene when his character Peter falls under the influence of the demon Paimon and smashes his face into his school desk (to the extent that Wolff broke his nose for real).
Actor Joseph Quinn plays Eric and has secured a huge global fanbase following his role as Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Stranger Things.
Lupita Nyong'o, Alex Wolff and Joseph Quinn are joined by Djimon Hounsou who reprises his role as Island Man from A Quiet Place: Part II.
Composer Alexis Grapsas replaces Marco Beltrami
Noted composer Marco Beltrami was Golden Globe-nominated for his work on A Quiet Place and returned for A Quiet Place: Part II. Beltrami had a difficult task in accentuating the dramatic tension of the storyline while also leaving breathing room for the silences and pauses that are intrinsic to the atmosphere of the series. John Krasinski originally envisioned A Quiet Place without music but later capitulated, believing that discreet yet prominent use of a score helped forge a greater connection with the audience.
Beltrami now gives way to Alexis Grapsas whose folksy work on Michael Sarnoski's Pig (composed with Philip Klein) helped fashion greater empathy with Nicolas Cage's isolated central character. A Quiet Place: Day One is evidently larger in scope than Pig so Grapsas will undoubtedly be able to stretch his horror muscles.
Click the link below to book your tickets for A Quiet Place: Day One. It's released at Cineworld on June 27th.
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