A Quiet Place: Day One

Supposedly the third and final film in the franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One, as alluded to in the title, serves as a prequel to the original 2018 film. Here we get to observe the initial invasion of the series’ deadly alien creatures which have ultrasonic hearing.

The trailer begins, perhaps ironically, with the din of a typical New York City soundscape accompanied by an aerial view of Manhattan with police sirens, horns, traffic, and so on. This is suddenly cut to the bell of a bodega’s door, and a bit of dialogue later, at 0:17, we’re greeted with silence as the protagonist begins to clue in on something amiss. At 0:18 an exaggerated boom tone enters—a sound in stark contrast to the initial din presented at the outset of the trailer, even as sirens increase. Meteorites—or ships?—containing the series’ aliens rain down on the city and chaos emerges, and by 0:31 we hear a loud ringing, emulating from the aural perspective of our protagonist.

An audiovisual blackout at 0:33 leads us to a new aerial view, this time with helicopters; we see the aliens quickly creeping over the buildings in the cityscape, and every sound is pronounced and enhanced with synth flourishes. An ascending siren-like sound serves as a soundtrack while also clearly signalling a heightened state of emergency. An airy chord in the synth further escalates the sense of drama.

The siren repeats with the title card for the date (“this June”), establishing itself as a kind of aural motif. At 1:02 a ticking sound enters—a much-favoured technique in modern trailer scores to further the tension. At 1:04 we cut to a close-up as the soundtrack cuts, as our protagonist shushes someone, a key moment for both the initiated in the audience and the uninitiated on screen. At 1:11 we hear a generator starting up, demonstrating that any sound whatsoever will attract the lethal attention of the aliens. Now the sound design of horror trailers prevails, with eerie silence and jump scares dominating the edit.

This doesn’t last, however, with a return to more action-oriented sound editing at 1:26; the siren motif is repeated with greater frequency and the ticking returns. There’s also synch points to the action at 1:32, with what looks like steps from the point of view of one of the aliens in a sewer. A montage follows, introducing extra percussion played both rapidly and in “trailer triplets.”

With what is an edit that’s perhaps unabashedly literal, all sound is cut with the title card “went quiet” at 1:45. We see a post-apocalyptic New York streetscape with another deafening room tone, leading an action sequence with martial percussion—the aliens are in full sight. The character played by Lupita Nyong'o whispers an ominous command, “Run.” At 1:58 we get one more cut to silence as the lead characters try to get into an office building, inadvertently knocking over a briefcase—which lands with an outsized thud, attracting the attention of an alien horde. We might call this a “negative button” at the end of r=the trailer, since the normal spoken button delivers a line of dialogue after cutting to silence. A very subtle creaking sound accompanies the final title card at 2:22, along with one more flourish of creepy synths.

Overall, the trailer’s edit doesn’t quite let go of the series’ history, still establishing that there will be suspenseful moments that lean on the eeriness of quiet soundscapes, jump scares, and the like. However, the majority of the trailer is spent on soundscapes and editing techniques that emphasize action. Overall, it’s probably the contrast between the two that serves to keep the premise of A Quiet Place fresh, even on its third outing.

A Quiet Place: Day One arrives in theatres June 28th, 2024.

— Curtis Perry