A Quiet Place: Day One shows us what happened on the day the Earth fell quiet. One bustling day in New York is interrupted by apparent meteors falling from the sky. These are revealed to be terrifying monsters that hunt by sound, and the only way to survive them is to make as little noise as possible.
The film is the prequel to the enjoyably skin-crawling A Quiet Place (2018) and A Quiet Place: Part II (2021), focusing on a handful of new characters including Lupita Nyong'o's Sam as they come to terms with this bloodthirsty new threat.
Do you need a recap on the rules of survival in the A Quiet Place series? Here's what you need to know.
Silence is golden
This is the imperative rule that marks the divide between life and death. In the world of A Quiet Place, the Abbott family is actively hunted by sound-sensitive monsters that come equipped with an oversized, massively sensitive ear canal. (These hideous invaders, which resemble the lickers from Resident Evil, are established as aliens from another world in A Quiet Place: Part II.)
Whatever else is true, the Abbotts can't engage in arbitrary conversation and there are deadly consequences in handing noisy, attention-grabbing toys to their children. In the movies, there's also a concerted effort on the part of the characters to rein in their movements lest the slightest thing give them away. This can be anything from a creaky floorboard to objects falling from the table. Dinner must be conducted in absolute silence and breathing must be done at the lowest possible pitch.
Mark where you walk
The Abbotts have cleverly learned how to mask the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel and leaves. First, remove all footwear and then lace the pathway with a line of salt or likeminded material to muffle the sound of movement. It also has the useful effect of being able to see where one has been.
Have a spare canister of oxygen necessary
One of the most agonising and suspenseful scenes in A Quiet Place involved Blunt's character Evelyn giving birth while a monster stalked its way indoors. And the danger only started there: Evelyn had to rig up a way of keeping the baby both alive and quiet, hence the soundproof box with a useful canister of oxygen included. Who knows when one is going to become an expectant mother amid a terrifying alien invasion?
Be prepared to rig your own alert system
In A Quiet Place: Part II, Evelyn, her deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and her son Marcus (Noah Jupe) leave their homestead to try and seek out other survivors. They soon run into Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a former neighbour of theirs who is alerted to their presence via a rigged collection of metal objects and bottles.
Unfortunately for Evelyn and her family, this brings an alien into their midst and they must run for their lives into Emmett's bunker. It goes to show how homemade devices come into their own in this frightening post-apocalyptic landscape.
Lighting can mark the divide between life and death
In A Quiet Place, ill-fated father Lee (played by the film's director John Krasinski) has devised a simple red light system to alert Evelyn and his children of aliens in the vicinity. As humans, we atavistically associate red with danger and death, and this simple device has helped keep the Abbott family alive long after many others have perished.
Learn to communicate through expression
Verbal sweet nothings aren't particularly useful when they can bring a rampaging alien down on one's head. In A Quiet Place, there's a deeply affecting scene when Lee and Evelyn share earbuds and dance to Neil Young's tender 'Harvest Moon'. Everything that they dare not say out loud is rendered loud and clear on their faces.
Use soundproofing to one's advantage
After the birth of her baby in A Quiet Place, Evelyn discovers the advantage of running water in her flooded basement when it masks her movement from the encroaching monsters. (Earlier in the film, Lee introduces this revelation to his son Marcus when he takes him to a nearby waterfall.) Environmental factors count for everything when mankind has been knocked several stages down the foodchain.
Sound can be used as a weapon
At the end of A Quiet Place, Regan Abbott discovers the paralysing effect of static noise on the ultra-sensitive aliens. This is what helps her and Evelyn defeat the creature at the end of the first film, and it also gives them something of an advantage in A Quiet Place: Part II when they devise a mobile solution and travel with it.
At the end of A Quiet Place: Part II, she and Emmett leave her hearing end connected to a local radio station, allowing other survivors to arm themselves against the monstrous beasts. How will this conceit be developed in A Quiet Place: Part III, we wonder? We'll find out in 2025 when it's set to be released.
How many of these rules will come into play during the events of A Quiet Place: Day One? Click the link below, book your tickets and find out when the film is released at Cineworld on June 27th.
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