WSB x Moving Picture Review: A Quiet Place Day One (2024)
In continuing our WSB x Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival reviews of new releases, we’re going where the creatures from the Quiet Place franchise live—outside. Yes, Allegheny County’s last remaining drive-in felt like the perfect venue for a film where every sound could potentially alarm a high-frequency creature, also known as “Death Angels,” and take us out without a moment’s notice. (At least if you truly wanted to immerse yourself, you could pretend that might happen.)
Before Friday night, I had never been to Pittsburgh’s Dependable Drive-In before, and I’ll be honest: I was shocked. Having come from a small town, the only drive-in theaters I’d frequented in the past all only had one screen which couldn’t even compare to the sizes we were passing to get to our designated location. It had been decades since my first drive-in experience; I’d noticed in more recent visits that the upkeep had fallen behind at the drive-ins in Westmoreland and Indiana counties. There weren’t car-side radios anymore and the once-white screens were weathered and dull. Dependable Drive-In doesn’t have many radios anymore either, however, the instant nostalgia of seeing just a few of them again evoked pure joy and excitement of being at a well-kept drive-in again—and of course, for the film of the evening, directors John Krasinski and Michael Sarnoski’s A Quiet Place: Day One.
Before the show could begin at 9 p.m., there was still a lot to take in. Not only did I notice that the Dependable Drive-In’s screens were bright white and that their projection sheds were established well above the cars in the back of the lot (rather than built into the concession stands where otherwise optimal parking would not be an option) but I could feel what a cinematic staple this location was for the people pulling in and picking out their spots.
On our trip in, my husband told me this was the place he and his family would always go to watch movies instead of a traditional indoor theater. Rain or shine, he recalled memory after memory of his experiences as a child, to films he remembers seeing in his teen and adult years, too. Don’t get me wrong, I researched the drive-in before coming and was intrigued to learn that the multi-screen drive-in had been here since 1950. With so many drive-ins lost over the years—not just Pittsburgh’s once over two dozen, but many of the country’s nearly 4,000—due to the development of indoor cinemas, cable TV, VCR/VHS, and later DVDs, it felt like a real privilege to be here. I couldn’t help but imagine all the films that had been projected here over the years and how different it would have been in the '60s or '70s, the peak of the industry, to be viewing them back then. As my mind wandered, the opening credits started to play, and then, the film we had all stuffed our cars with camping chairs, blankets, hoodies, and more to come see, began.
Unlike both of its predecessors, A Quiet Place: Day One started with sound—and lots of it. Hovering over New York City, words on the screen explained the decibel levels of cityscapes and the constant noise that inhabits these types of places. From planes, trains, and automobiles to the conversations and footsteps of millions of people, it is a place that is never actually silent. Being at the Dependable Drive-In, I already felt so immersed in the film as a result of the cars passing on the nearby highway and the planes landing and taking off at the not-so-distant international and cargo airports—not to mention, the orange glow of the clouds from street lights and neighboring screens. It was better than I imagined.
From here, we head a little outside of the city to a hospice center where our main character, Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) is assumed to be living out her final days. While we don’t know what terminal illness she has, we quickly pick up on the anger and frustration that fills her while sharing a poem in a group session that vaguely encompasses the shit position she’s in, the shitty facility she lives at, and the shitty old people that surround her. Trying to spread joy in an otherwise depressing place and in a person who calls herself mean, nurse and friend Rueben (Alex Wolff) invites her to a play in the city where he promises, they can get pizza afterward. While the last trip was meant to be “the last trip,” Samira agrees to go and heads to her room to grab the single cardigan she keeps for special occasions, her iPod, and her service cat.
Having seen A Quiet Place I and II prior, I could appreciate that the filmmakers were again giving us characters with clear weaknesses. We know beforehand that Samira relies on medication and doesn’t have much time left, so there is pressure to make us care about losing her, as she’s already gone, and of course, concern for her survival regarding the unknown time she does have left. These thoughts are a reminder during the drive in, where instead of simply approaching the city from a cinematic bridge view or skyline shot, an enormous graveyard floods the space in between, striking a strong foreshadowing of not only Samira’s situation but the millions of others who will die soon, too.
Lupita Nyong’o in A Quiet Place: Day One, image via IMDB
In the short moments following the end of the play, we see Samira sitting on the bus, heartbroken that they would be skipping pizza and how unkind she was to Rueben for his decision to end the trip sooner; something was going on in the city, but no one was sure exactly what it was yet. As portrayed in the trailers, the invasion of the alien beasts we’d already met in A Quiet Place I and II make their first landing in the form of what looks like fallen meteors. Once Samira notices that everyone on the bus is walking to the back for a better look at the sky and surroundings down the street, an explosion takes place, throwing her to the ground. Inner city chaos unleashes and it’s everything you could imagine. Louder than our initial city overview shot, our personal radio spews out loud sirens, the crashing of cars, screams, and of course, the alien sounds of those coming to kill the noise. Dust is seemingly everywhere and viewers alive during 9-11 can make traumatic connections to this terrorist-like attack.
Somehow, not only is Samira eventually able to find shelter, but she also finds Rueben and her cat (yes, I fully admit I was most worried about the cat right after the explosion). From here, it is acknowledging that those in hiding have quickly accepted that they need to be quiet if they want to survive. I cannot quite express the anxiety I felt for not just these scenes, but any scenes involving Samira’s cat. At the hospice center, she had meowed once when being fed, and it had stayed in the back of my mind for the entirety of the film. Despite this, it was not just the cat I should have been worried about, but the people slowly losing their minds and the generators that would try to keep the city running. No doubt, there was a healthy balance of chaos and calm throughout the early hours of the invasion. Throughout it all, there was one small light that would keep us going: Samira was determined to go to Harlem and get the pizza she was promised.
Eventually, helicopters were flying over the city, informing folks that they would be evacuating everyone by boat at the South Port, with hundreds of alien creatures following their trail. While we didn’t find out until the second installation of the franchise that these creatures couldn’t swim, those in a city essentially surrounded by water, discovered fairly quickly that they would be safest there. Rising out of the ashes, dozens of people began to emerge from hiding to walk to salvation. As the numbers continued to rise, Samira and viewers noticed that the noise was growing. Thousands of footsteps, rolling suitcases, and squeaky wheelchairs soon brought the creatures right back and we were returned to peak chaos once more.
While this second mass killing would almost take Samira, too, she later finds herself in an alley alone, only to look up and find that not only has her cat returned once more, but that they brought someone who would grow from nuisance to friend, Eric (Joseph Quinn). In my opinion, every survival/horror movie needs this kind of dynamic duo. As chaos and quiet balance throughout the film, so do our emotions and our characters’ traits. For every painful thought or realization, there is a light being sought or a supporting push to not give up. The end goal is always to live and make it out alive, even when we know that our end is coming for us no matter what.
Reportedly making $6.8 million in previews at the box office on Thursday, the franchise’s best-performing feature thus far is certainly one worth watching, not only for the new take on how this invasion would impact an urban location but also for its new characters. Neither Lupita nor Joseph are shy to horror films or TV shows, having played in Us and Stranger Things Season 4, respectively, and it shows. Although weak in moments, the personal connections their characters make in the darkest, and most hopeless places outshines the horrors that are taking place all around them.
In a time where a Death Angel will kill you for being heard, it is the details of our lives being told, ever quietly and in whispers, that make our lives still worth living. It is our details, our story, and most of all, our decision to take our life back in the face of anything and everything that is trying to take it from us.
If you’d like to visit Dependable Drive-In, you can find their current showings here:
WSB x Moving Picture Reviews is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival. The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival celebrates both the art of cinema and the rich motion picture exhibition tradition of the City of Pittsburgh. Our goal in this series is to highlight new and upcoming genre films and, wherever possible, to support local, independent movie theaters in the process.
Article Written by Destiny King
Destiny is a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association who’s been working in B2B publishing for nearly a decade. Her favorite horror subgenres are true crime, found footage, and psychological thrillers. Find her on Letterboxd.
