A Quiet Place: Day One - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

A Quiet Place: Day One



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
A Quiet Place was one of THE best sci-fi films of 2018, and one of the best 4K discs of the era as well. I still remember being absolutely floored at the near flawless use of sound, and even more importantly, lack of sound in it’s telling of the story. It was a taught thriller with a closed and claustrophobic feeling environment that played on human emotions and sheer tension in a really nice way. John Krasinski literally turned himself from “Jim from The Office” into an actual bankable power house in modern Hollywood, and while not every effort he’s made post A Quiet Place has been a hit, he’s still made himself quite a mark in Hollywood. Even his sequel to the original was great, if not AS perfect as the original, but I still raised an eyebrow when I saw that we were going to get a prequel to the whole alien invasion in the form of Day One, but decided to stick my head in the sand and ignore as much press as I could in preparation for watching this as completely blind as I could in order to form my own first impressions.

A Quiet Place was based upon a simple gimmick, aliens who could hear even the slightest sound, and the terrifying reality of living in a world where even a single misstep could literally end your life. It was tense, it never really relied TOO MUCH on the aliens themselves, and instead focused on the human characters and their attempts to navigate in this world. Day One takes us back to the beginning, and in a way sets up the next couple of movies, but also forges its own way with it’s own “feel” to the universe that is almost disconnected to the original two films.

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) is a terminal cancer patient literally living out the remaining months of her days in absolute agony in hospice care. The only friend comfort she has is in the form of male nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff) and her therapy cat Frodo, but she makes do with some very understandable cynicism and bitterness as she faces the inevitable. On a routine visit to downtown San Francisco the entire world literally turns upside down as the alien invasion that we know from the first two films happens in full force. During this time period humanity hadn’t learned that they tracked by sound, so the ENTIRE world falls into utter chaos as a horde of fast moving monsters literally eats anything that moves or makes a sound.

Coming out of the ashes with only Frodo, Sam and the rest of the world figures out that even the slightest sound could attract their predators, and soon form semblances of alliances and parties moving in complete silence to find some remnant of safety. Sam soon meets British law student Eric (Joseph Quinn) and form an uneasy (and unwanted) partnership as the two try to navigate a world that has literally been turned upside down, with all the laws and morays that they new pretty much wiped out within that one single day.

Comparing directly to the first two films (I binge watched both this week before this one) Day One is king of a small step back in the franchise. Krasinski did an amazing job at world building with such a simple premise, and so few words in her debut film, and this one seems to suffer a little bit of sequelitis, especially when you consider he’s no longer directing this entry into the franchise. The world is more open, more chaotic, and with more sound than what we’ve seen before. Some of this is very much a natural progression, as humanity really hasn’t learned how to survive just yet, but it still feels “odd” when you consider how much story was told with so little dialog in the previous two films. But as the film progresses it actually catches it’s groove and steps up into setting up the world in which we’d see ourselves in the future (or the past depending on if you’re the reader or the characters lol).

The film lives and dies by its main characters, and Lupita Nyong’o is probably the highlight of the entire production .Her character is the focal point of the entire story, showing us the absolute force that is humanity’s will to survive. Especially when you consider that she is a cancer patient with only months to live. Logic would say that she might see the alien invasion as a way out of life, but instead she buckles down and forges ahead, desperately grabbing onto whatever time she has left to live her life to the fullest. Quinn isn’t too bad as Eric, but sadly I felt he was almost a superfluous character in many ways. HOWEVER, there is one character that I think everyone KNOWS is the main character, and where the audience invest the most time and emotion into, and that would be Frodo. I swear to heaven that the entire movie I was wound up in knots desperately hoping that Frodo would not get eaten by a monster, or make a sound and betray them. It was a constant inner dialog of “no no no no no!!! don’t let the cat get killed!” the entire hour and 40 minute runtime.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for terror and violent content/bloody images




4K Video: Video:

Paramount’s 2.39:1 framed HEVC image looks spectacular in 4K UHD, and a rather healthy upgrade from the near perfect Blu-ray included in the set (I’m still tickled pink that Paramount at least made a combo pack out of the steel book release). The image is really crisp and clean, with a decidedly grey and sooty look to most of the film. Colors are generally rather desaturated and muted, with splashes of primary shades hear and there (such as in the daylight before the invasion in San Francisco). The dolby Vision upgrade offers some really impressive amount of detail in darker shots, and while the colors are a bit richer, I found MOST of the benefits show themselves in the dark, with richer blacks and less changes at artifacting. Said Blu-ray could sometimes show banding or crush where the 4K UHD disc did not, and overall I found detail levels in the pitch black of a demolished theater, or in the darkness of Sam’s apartment to be just that much more revealing. I really can’t find anything technically wrong with this transfer, and find it to be one of the best I’ve seen this year, despite it not being your typical “oohhh, shiny” film.









Audio:

Given the Dolby Atmos treatment (as needed), Day One really shines in the audio department. It isn’t going to be as unique and stylish as the very first film (which was a demo disc in regards how to use LACK of sound to be just as important as the sound itself), but it is a power house of detail driven audio, with great surround presence and an eerie ambiance that really makes use of EVERY speaker. The opening few minutes of the film before the attack is quiet and reserved, but still showcasing some nice surround activity when Sam and Reuben head into the city for a day out. HOWEVER, the bigger more exciting moments after the invasion are terrifying in their ferocity. Alien feet slam and skitter across the floor, with little clattering sound effects rattling into the surround channels. Overheads get plenty of discrete and ambient noises to stay active, and yes, we do get large swathes of time where silence is king. That being said, this is definitely a more active track than the previous two films, allowing the characters to speak and utilize masking techniques to give themselves more dialog time on screen.












Extras:

• Day Zero: Beginnings and Endings—Hear from John Krasinski, cast, and crew as director Michael Sarnoski takes the reins for this character-driven prequel.
• In the City: Chaos in Chinatown—See how the production crew recreated Manhattan from scratch in order to destroy it. Plus, hear from some new and familiar faces from the franchise
• The Exodus: Against the Tide—Go behind-the-scenes of the exodus sequence that employed over a hundred extras and a clever mix of practical and visual effects.
• The Long Walk: Monsters in Midtown—Meet Frodo the cat and the animal trainers behind the fantastic feline performance. Plus, filmmakers detail Sam, Eric, and Frodo's long walk through the city.
• Pizza at the End of the World—Hear from cast and crew about why a quest for pizza when the world is under attack poignantly speaks to our humanity.
• Deleted and Extended Scenes

Final Score: ​

A Quiet Place: Day One is a solid entry into Krasinksi’s sci-fi/horror genre, and while it took some time getting used to the new feel, I actually ended up rather enjoying the prequel. The film doesn’t bother clueing us in to how humanity figured out that silence was the key, but instead just rolls with it and allows you to get sucked into the intense world that has now been formed out of the old. Paramount’s 4K (and Blu-ray are quiet the stunners here, with great video and amazing audio (though I still think that the Atmos track on the very first film is the definition of perfect audio), for once I’m actually praising Paramount's use of a combo pack. The individual 4K and Blu-ray discs are single disc releases, forgoing the Blu-ray and the DVD to make them combo packs like has been the norm for Paramount for quite a few months. HOWEVER, this steelbook release that Paramount sent me actually has the Blu-ray included, making it a legit combo pack. So for those of you who want the most, I technically think this steel book is going to be the definitive edition. Solid recommendation from yours truly.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, Alfie Todd
Directed by: Michael Sarnoski
Written by: Michael Sarnoski, John Krasinski, Bryan Woods
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), German, Spanish (latin), Spanish (Castillian), French (Canadian), French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Thai DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 100
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 8th, 2024

Recommendation: Solid Recommendation