From the start, we think of Cloverfield. In the end, we always think about Cloverfield. Why, then, not just rewatch Matt Reeves’ film? Good question.
Directed and written by Michael Sarnoski (Pig), A Quiet Place: Day One (A quiet corner. Day 1) forgets the rural environment and the Abbotts (whose survival we followed in two films that grossed nearly 640 million), moves to New York (for the umpteenth time on screen, the Big Apple eats a whole one) and goes back to the arrival of the blind monsters with overdeveloped hearing on the blue planet where they wreak carnage.
“For what purpose?” we wondered in the previous installments. This third installment of the saga imagined by John Krasinski (who wrote and directed the two previous films while also acting in them) does not provide an answer. What were these extraterrestrial creatures doing “aboard” the meteorites that fell to Earth? What is their purpose, if they have one? What do they do between two killings? Who survives will see. After all, if the machine pays off, Day One can be followed by many other days: A Quiet Place was going from 89e au 473e day, and A Quiet Place Part II resumed a few hours later, after a flashback to the famous first day – which could/should have served as an example for this feature film.
This time, Samira (Lupita Nyong’o manages to be moving in this role whose destiny is nevertheless written in red ink from the moment she enters the game) is present, who finds herself in the middle of the city, with her cat, at the time of the fateful meteor shower. She meets Eric, a completely lost Englishman (Joseph Quinn, amazing in the role of a character light years away from the metalhead of Stanger Things). Together, where the Abbotts were a family unit in survival mode, they form a pair leading almost the same quest. Almost, because that of a pizza is added here.
In a world where survival depends on silence, Day One is a very noisy film (we’re not surprised to see Michael Bay’s name in the credits). In this terrified city, the inhabitants are exceptionally clear-sighted. It only takes them a few hours to understand that their life depends on their ability not to make or cause a sound. As for Samira and Eric, their wanderings sometimes lead them to dead ends from which they somehow get out, giving the impression that a lot of film has been left on the cutting room floor.
The fact remains that in this mass of special effects, rather well done, and these few reminders of the first parts of the franchise (among others, the character played by Djimon Hounsou), the actors of the protagonists succeed in reproducing the impression of intimacy that made the strength of the first films, which were not without inconsistencies. However, this does not compensate for an unimaginative narrative structure or a repetitive production. After all, what to do with these monsters that we know nothing about, if not make them tear humans apart? But at least there is the cat…
