Reviews
[REVIEW] ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Is A Heart-Pounding Ride Driven By Heartfelt Drama
I’ll be blunt: if you didn’t enjoy A Quiet Place as much as everybody else who raved about it in 2018 or were underwhelmed by its sequel A Quiet Place Part II, this review is for you. And this review says you should see A Quiet Place: Day One, because in my eyes it is as close to a perfect installment as I’m expecting to get out of this franchise.
I’ll be blunt: if you didn’t enjoy A Quiet Place as much as everybody else who raved about it in 2018 or were underwhelmed by its sequel A Quiet Place Part II, this review is for you. And this review says you should see A Quiet Place: Day One, because in my eyes it is as close to a perfect installment as I’m expecting to get out of this franchise. Which, granted, sounds melodramatic, but stay with me.
A Quick Catch-up for A Quiet Place: Day One
If you haven’t caught up with what these films are about: nigh indestructible apex predator aliens drop from space. The good news is they’re blind and have no sense of smell; the bad news is, they have an incredible sense of hearing, and rip apart anything and everything that makes noise to shreds. A Quiet Place: Day One shows us the beginning of their attack on planet Earth, and follows New York native Sam, who returns to the city on the worst day possible as the creatures touch down. This film, of course, serves as a prequel to the other two films that came before it, but outside of one character we’ve seen before, Day One is a self-contained story, and I prefer it that way.
A Setting You Can Sink Your Teeth Into
Personally, this film is what I wanted from the jump. One of the problems I had with A Quiet Place was its greatest strength: its insistence on showing you how the Abbot Family have set up their homestead to be alien-proofed. I personally found that the locale of a mostly secured farm in the middle of Upstate New York traded off great set pieces for interesting world-building. Which is fine because I really liked that world-building, and the set pieces that were there, like the fireworks ruse and the grain silo trap and the marked steps, they had a charm to them. But I felt like I needed something meatier. I needed an environment that would make every second of existing in it feel like a risk.
And Day One does that handily, turning New York City into a brutal and unforgiving hunting ground. Your eyes end up darting around the frame, leaving you to wonder what errant piece of glass or object in view is going to make the noise that brings an eldritch stampede through to eviscerate everything in its path. Every street, every corner, and every subway station becomes a new dead zone of sound stalked by faceless nightmares, whose roars cut to the bone as fast as their teeth do. Which, on the topic of body shaking roars, you should be seeing this film in IMAX. It’s worth it just for the sound mixing and the foley work alone, which are some of the best I’ve heard all year.
The Best A Quiet Place’s Aliens Have Ever Looked
And let’s talk about the franchise’s unnamed aliens (I’ve seen some fans call them Death Angels because of an in-universe newspaper clipping, but I kind of prefer them as a nameless horde). You see them constantly throughout the whole film, Day One never lets that get stale. The special effects used to model them have certainly come a long way, with the textures of their mottled grey armor and the few bits of raw flesh we get to see underneath blow the original out of the water thanks to advances in digital SFX.
Even in plain sight, their uncomfortably fast movement makes them a gazelle mauling lion, a skulking trap door spider, and a man crushing rhinoceros all at once, changing how they approach on the fly to suit their hunt. It’s all about how director Michael Sarnoski frames them that makes this possible, with his use of lighting being supreme in silhouetting the monsters and making them more imposing. The opening sequence of the film reminded me a lot of The Mist for some kind of obvious reasons, but it’s mostly appropriate because Sarnoski really did manage to take these creatures which in previous films became very killable, and reinjected a lot of the intimidating horror they had to them when they were lurking around in the shadows as the new and indisputable top of the food chain.
That being said, the creature design itself does look a bit goofy in some wide shots, with one particular shot meant to show the scale of their attack being particularly odd; these instances are far and few between, with them looking great for most of the runtime.
Lupita Nyong’O and Joseph Quinn Bring Next-Level Performances
But what does all of this alien fear amount to if you’re not invested in the people on the ground, the everyday person thrust into the apocalyptic alien invasion? And that was where I was most surprised with A Quiet Place: Day One, because it certainly has some of my favorite horror leads of the year, and given the audience reactions I’ve heard, Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) and her unlikely friend Eric (Joseph Quinn) are going to be horror fan favorites for a good long while.
Lupita Nyong’o is so unbelievably good in this, playing the beleaguered Sam whose already terrible life kind of just spins down the drain even faster with the invasion of Earth. But her struggles, her character motivation, and her character development over the course of an engrossing 100 minutes are so perfectly arranged and executed that she feels real to an uncanny level. Joseph Quinn deserves praise as well for the physical aspect of his acting talents, because there’s this palpable feeling to his pain in this movie that I couldn’t get over; his shuddering and panic, his unrest and terror, it’s all played with a full-tilt intensity and fully trained expertise. Nyong’o and Quinn’s chemistry amplifies their natural talents to an unbelievable level; they make you feel a genuine bond between these characters, united by their suffering, that makes for a compelling watch.
The way I really know I was totally absorbed by Day One is that by a third of the way through, I felt fairly confident that I knew exactly how it was going to play out. And while I was right, there still wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t on the edge of my seat just watching it go that way. Because like with many great things, it’s about the journey more than the destination. A Quiet Place: Day One is a journey that’s at turns heart-pounding, with moments that will leave you dead silent– but it’s a true rarity, and the real reason you need to see it, is how heartfelt it becomes, and how it sticks with your emotionally.
Most people find that stretching their dollar still barely gets them by in today’s economy. I am very particular about what I spend my spare money on regarding extracurriculars. And no one likes to feel like their money is wasted. Madame Morbid Trolley Tours wasn’t an experience I had been familiar with. Maybe that’s because I’m chronically offline for most of my life. So this leads to the perfect question: in today’s turbulent economy, is Madame Morbid Trolley Tours worth the price? The short answer is unquestionably, yes. But it’s more than just a simple yes.
My wife and I arrived at the designated meeting point 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. A handful of minutes later, a gorgeous, e-candle-lit trolley pulled up to the side of the road. We were greeted by impeccably on-brand Allison Chase, our tour guide, and trolley driver ‘Mad’ Matt Zaller. The wonderfully cheery duo invited us on the trolley, and the tour was set to begin.
400 Years of Death, Destruction, and Infrastructure
After a welcoming video intro from someone who knows a thing or two about busting ghosts, we set off on the inaugural Madame Morbid Trolley Tour in its ninth year of operation. From the Brooklyn Naval Yard all the way to Dumbo, and more, this tour magnificently chronicles 400 years of history, the good and the bad, expertly. No matter how much you think you may know about Brooklyn history, I can bet there will be something new learned within the first 15 minutes of the tour. From the first-ever plane crash to one of the worst theater fires in history, this tour covers tragedies that the greatest horror writers couldn’t conceive.
The Deadly [Charming] Docent
Allison Chase led the fascinating tour in character from the moment we stepped on the trolley until our departure. But Allison’s character was not forced or fake; you could feel Allison’s passion for not just morbid history, but the accuracy of it. Some of the stories we heard were steeped in historical context, and it was not boring for a single second. The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour is not your standard full-talking tour. It’s a mixed-media adventure of some of Brooklyn’s darkest moments.
During “downtime” (the times between locations), we were edutained by mini documentaries (that were quite funny). Some of the “downtime” was filled with traffic trivia (I won a needle pen!). And other times were show-and-tell-like, with objects passed around for us to examine. But there was never a moment of silence that wasn’t purposeful. All in all, Allison’s knowledge and passion shone like the luminosity of a full moon.
Is Madame Morbid Trolley Tours Worth It?
The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour was not just a fun night out for my wife and me, but it was a delightfully dark night of edutainment. It should also be noted that ‘Mad’ Matt’s driving skills were fantastic. There was a time when I had become enamored with how Matt handled the narrow streets of Brooklyn before realizing that I needed to refocus my attention on Allison. The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour is an exceptionally fun evening of horror and history that will make you think twice next time you walk down the streets of Brooklyn. It is worth the money, and then some. There’s no better activity for a cold, dark October night than the Madame Morbid Trolley Tour.
For more information on Madame Morbid Trolley Tours, and to get your tickets, click here!
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should have watched the Stephen King adaptation Cujo a million years ago. First of all, I was a voracious King reader in middle school. The other thing I was obsessed with during those years was Friends. You know, the show that hinges a major episode’s subplot on Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) watching Cujo for the first time. Whatever the reason was, I never got around to it, but I’m rectifying that oversight now.
What is Cujo About?
Cujo tells a relatively simple story. Donna Trenton’s (Dee Wallace) a housewife who’s cheating on her husband Vic (Daniel Hugh-Kelly) with local handyman Steve (Christopher Stone). There’s no accounting for taste, because Vic is 10 times hotter and Steve doesn’t own a bed frame. Look, Donna. I know Vic has that awful David Hasselhoff hair, but I promise the 1980s will end sooner or later. It’ll be OK.
Donna’s attempted termination of this affair ultimately leads to its discovery. Amid this drama, her car breaks down at a mechanic’s isolated farmhouse, trapping her and her son, Tad (Danny Pintauro). You see, the mechanic’s dog, Cujo, freshly christened with rabies, is patrolling the area and attacking everything in sight.
Dee Wallace Is Cujo’s Not-So-Secret Weapon
It would be impossible to start a worthwhile review of Cujo without praising Dee Wallace. The woman is a genre icon, naturally. Think about this: She had only appeared in seven theatrical movies before starring in Cujo. Four of those movies are The Stepford Wives, The Hills Have Eyes, E.T., and The Howling. But this woman didn’t become an icon simply by accidentally stumbling into some iconic titles. She is simply terrific as Donna, using her darting eyes and taut expression to deliver oodles of subtext. You instantly get the sense of how trapped she feels by marriage and motherhood without her uttering a single word.
A good performance is vital, here. Because there’s a hell of a lot of drama to get through before she’s trapped in that damn car. But Wallace instantly shoves you into Donna’s perspective, whether you like it or not. This makes it all the more potent when she is menaced by Cujo. Her desperate attempts for survival, also impeccably performed, have true weight because she seems like a real person. She is also given an incredible scene partner in Danny Pintauro. The future Who’s the Boss? star, who was only six when shooting Cujo, has a perfect everychild quality. His innocence heightens the peril. But so does that fact that he is just as irritating as every six-year-old you’ve ever met.
This movie truly captures how annoying it must be to be stuck in a life-and-death situation with a child. This is a compliment, I swear! Donna is worn down by every aspect of the situation, including her own son’s inability to cope with it. And this ratchets up the tension even further, to an almost unbearable degree.
Cujo Is a Mixed Bag, But Worthwhile Overall
The movie doesn’t work if Cujo himself doesn’t work, and at first I was real worried that he wouldn’t. In the first half, the St. Bernards that play Cujo onscreen are often shown to be wagging their tails in delight. Which kind of undercuts the reality of the situation, I’d say. But the editing and the special effects step in to fix what animal training couldn’t. The attack scenes in the second half are constructed with quick cuts that never let you get too much purchase. It’s a good approach for keeping viewers off-kilter.
Also, Cujo becomes less and less recognizable as a cuddly canine the further the movie gets. It’s a simple trick, really. He ends up getting coated with more and more slime. Saliva, pus, blood, and what have you. This is good for making him feel like a true movie monster. Plus, it’s a good mirror for the sliminess inside the car as it gets covered in sweat, blood, and grime.
The second half of the movie ultimately works like gangbusters. It’s a shame that Cujo is too cowardly to get Donna and Tad in the car before the halfway point. This decision is somewhat faithful to the book’s structure as I remember it. However, it diminishes the weight of the long days that they spend in the car. We really need to feel that crushing stretch of time, and we don’t. When Tad is suffering from dehydration, it’s not a gut punch. Honestly, I just found myself asking, “Already?” It’s good that they gave the movie a happier ending, because the classic grimdark Stephen King finale wouldn’t have landed.
Is Cujo Worth Watching in 2026?
At the end of the day, Cujo is a solid movie and I’m glad I finally watched it. However, it’s not such a stone-cold classic that I’m not at least a little intrigued by that upcoming Netflix remake…
