Un film that will make a big splash, the facetious critic would say. After a first part of excellent quality (by and with John Krasinski, 2018), then a second one that is well below that (with Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy, 2020), the saga Without a sound try the prequel with Jour 1. This time directed by Michael Sarnoski, to whom we owe the very curious Pig (2021), the feature film arrives in theaters this Wednesday. And that’s great news.
Set some time before the events of the first film, we witness the beginnings of an invasion of noise-sensitive aliens, reducing the entire world to silence. It is therefore in a perfectly silent New York that Samira (Lupita Nyong’o, 2014 Oscar for best supporting actress for Twelve Years a Slave), a seriously ill young woman, and her cat Frodo.
READ ALSO A horror film to change your outlook on the suburbsThere they will cross paths with Eric (Joseph Quinn, star of Stranger Things), a cowardly law student and follower, who will cling to them like a mussel to a rock. Together, they will have to survive these otherworldly creatures, who kill at the slightest sound.
Michael Sarnoski, a pilot at the controls
Let’s say it straight away: we expected nothing from this new opus. Installed in delicate positions and third film, and prequel, Jour 1 must deal with a non-existent surprise and a frankness that has already largely covered the issue. This is its biggest flaw. Perhaps even its only one, moreover.
Because the scenes of great tension, very successful indeed, struggle to be renewed due to a rudimentary concept. A noise, an alien running, a dead person. It’s as simple as that. Also the introduction, when the Big Apple is the noisy city we know, would have deserved to be a tad longer. Enough to allow, even more so, to say more about the nature of the invaders and their plan of attack. This check mark has been missed, let’s move on.
In many other ways, the feature film excels. Thanks, first, to Michael Sarnoski. There is indeed a pilot at the controls, and his talent shines through in this meticulous production. Like when he tells the story of Samira’s illness, as close as possible. Or details her relationship with going out into town, she who is locked up in a clinic all year round…
But what is also striking in this lovely surprise is the level of its acting tandem. We find the gifted Lupita Nyong’o in the horror register. This frightened look, these panting breaths… These cries, too, which already in Us (2019) knew how to make us uncomfortable, explode in our faces again.
“Without a sound: day 1”, fabulous hybridization
As for Joseph Quinn, this is the walk he needed. We had nicely discovered him as a metalhead with a tender heart in the fourth season of Stranger Things. Then we wondered about the relevance of his presence on the bill for the next Fantastic Four (2025) et Gladiator II (2024). Too fast too high? We are ultimately reassured by this intermediate role, in which the Briton always plays very well. We detect here and there a bit of Heath Ledger and Robert Downey Jr. Just that.
In addition, the seemingly innocuous presence of the cat opens up new possibilities for narration, into which the scenario is fully engulfed. An innocent animal, and therefore incapable of curbing its noises, Frodo acts like a time bomb in this story, where each meow, each paw strike or each clumsy fall can cause the end of his masters. Hat !
We feel that this narrative reflection has permeated the entire creation of Without a sound: day 1. The latter emerges as the most spectacular of the saga – a budget five times greater than Without a sound, twice as large as its sequel, helps. But also as the most intimate, creating on this occasion a pleasant balance between borrowings from disaster films à la Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The day after) and in independent cinema, much more focused on humans. A fabulous hybridization, for which we really want to make some noise…
