I enjoyed A Quiet Place one and two. I love Emily Blunt and John Krasinski. More than that, they had a solid suspense plot. From the opening moments to the satisfying end, they kept me riveted. Why? Because I cared about this family and their survival. While motive behind the alien attack wasn't really addressed, it was an acceptable monster movie. There were goals and stakes, obstacles and solutions. Not the most terrifying movie I have ever watched, but better than 2008's flop The Happening where the danger was the wind.
When I saw that A Quiet Place Day One was a prequel, I thought, "Oh goody, we finally get the origin story about the aliens." Nope. What we got was a sad literary vignette. Let's talk about where it failed from a story structure perspective.
1. The protagonist. Though Lupito Nyong'o, Samira, did her best with what she was given, the short-termer cancer patient lacks goals except to get pizza. Quite frankly I rooted more for her cat, but even the cat was problematic. More on that later. So she had no real goal. The obstacles/antagonists were the aliens. Since she had no expectation of surviving, it was extremely weak motivation. A complication came in the form of a stranger, Eric, played by Joseph Quinn. We learn almost nothing about him except he is from England and was going to law school. It wasn't a potential romance layer.
2. The goal and stakes. There aren't any except surviving each scene until the end and her wanting a specific pizza, which was kind of ridiculous given the circumstance. It would have been old abandoned pizza picked at by insects and flies at best. She is dying, so she isn't even interested in being saved. At least the stranger has some sense of self-preservation. Which is why the cat is my hero. Frodo manages to outmaneuver the aliens.
3. The purse pet. Frodo, played by cats Schnitzel and Nico, stole every scene This is something that annoys me about a lot of film and television which features pets (and often children). They magically appear when needed and there is no continuity between appearances. One moment the cat is on a leash, the next free-roaming. Samira is holding him at times. As an owner of many cats, at the first sign of trouble they scatter and hunker down, resisting your calls. If they are startled when you are holding them, you will end up scarred. The idea that this cat would keep returning to her on cue is absurd. It isn't like they have a long term history. He wasn't her cat. She would never have seen it again after it left the first time. He would have run from Eric, not taken him to Samira. Cats are stealthy and the aliens might not have heard Frodo as long as he didn't meow, but there is a good chance he would have hissed. She should have handed the cat off to the other survivors heading for the boat. By not doing so, at that moment, she was consigning Frodo to her fate. If not for Eric, the cat would not have made it. So there was a lot of "the plot called for it."
3. The mythology. I was no closer to understanding what the aliens were, where they came from, why they came, and what they wanted by the end of this prequel. I thought surely it would have explained all. I expected to see the origin story of how people were made aware of them and what was done in an attempt to fight them. We got zero insight, except they don't like water. But much like cats, they can tolerate it when needed. The rules of magic didn't state that water melted them like acid. If so, rain would too but they navigate wet surfaces just fine.
4. The escape. Let's talk about the logic of the boat. The aliens are seen jumping long distances. That boat would not have made it out of the harbor without making noise and being swarmed. Period. End of. So total logic fail. Maybe they should have summoned a submarine and entered it from a subterranean port. Instead it was just a setup for Eric to save the cat.
5. The outcome. Samira gives the cat to Eric and they make it to the boat, leaving Samira behind to be eaten. The end. So unsatisfying. Yes, I prefer a happy ending. Samira was never going to get one. At least Eric saved the cat, though it nearly drowned on the way to the boat, another plot called for it moment.
Thus proving that just because it is in the same universe does not guarantee that a movie will be a satisfying story. That is an hour and thirty-nine minutes I will never get back. If it were a book, it would go on my "to be burned" pile and I would never read the author again.
I would love to see more truly scary horror books and movies and series. So many have been a huge disappointment. I don't want dreams, memories, submerged trauma, or horrifying truths. These are other genres of Horror that other people enjoy. They're just not my flavor. Gore has replaced tension. You can have more tension in a one-on-one cat and mouse chase than you do from one-hundred special-effects-laden deaths. The mythologies aren't sufficient or are missing entirely. The writers/directors aren't good at managing the tension gas pedal, of creating a sense of unease that leads to delicious jump scares. I am waiting for someone to make horror great again. It won't be Blumhouse. They disappoint me every time.
A few I consider satisfying (mostly movies of late).
The Exorcist (original)
What Lies Beneath
The Conjuring movie universe
Annabelle Comes Home
Last House on the Left
The Woman In Black by Shirley Jackson, movie adaption with Daniel Radcliff was pretty good too.
Insidious movie franchise.
Sixth Sense
The Black Phone based on a Joe Hill story.
The Haunting 1989 based on Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House
Rose Red scripted by Stephen King.
There are more examples I could give but you get the gist. I want to be scared with the tension gas pedal expertly applied and good jump scares. I want to leave the experience looking over my shoulder and closing my curtains at night. I want a satisfying mythology, and there are many cultural mythologies to explore. I don't mind a "who dies next" plot like And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie as long as the other elements are in place and I am rooting for the protagonist to survive.
Further reading:
Stirring The Plot With Isolation
Story Skeleton: Watcher In The Woods
House At The End of The Street Part 1
House At The End of The Street Part 2
Dark Places Story Skeleton Part 1
Dark Places Story Skeleton Part 2
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