A Quiet Place: Day One 4K Ultra HD

In "A Quiet Place: Day One," a young woman named Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing. (Gary Reber)

Special features include five featurettes: "Day Zero: Beginnings And Endings" (HD 07:58), "In The City: Chos In Chinatown" (HD 97:51), "The Exodus: Against The Tide" (HD 06:27), "The Long Walk: Monsters In Midtown" (HD 07:49) and "Pizza At The End Of The World" (HD 07:17); five deleted and extended scenes (HD 15:06) and a digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD Dolby Vision/HDR10 picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed digitally in anamorphic Panavision® using the Arri Alexa 35 camera system and sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. The picture is visually dynamic with a production design that is dramatic and scary. The color palette exhibits naturally warm and rich saturated hues and fine shadings. Colors, for the most part, do not pop, but then the settings never are conducive. Numerous scenes are in dark shadowy environments, with the electrical power destroyed and the heroin sheltered indoors, dark alleyways or abandon gray, rubble-infused street locales. Flesh tones appear perfectly accurate. HDR contrast is excellent. Both the city in daylight and in darkness exhibits natural black levels with revealing shadows. White levels are perfectly natural and realistic. Resolution is superb with detail particularly revealed in the scenes with light, but more obscured in the darker scenes, Facial features such as skin pores, lines, and hair are detailed. Creature features during closeups are detailed. Sam's white cat fur is perfectly realistic. Clothing textures are revealing. The cityscape and structural and object textures are perfectly realistic. The picture has a filmic, hauntingly beautiful character. This is a well-crated scary picture with nightmarish monsters and a haunting production design that evokes terror. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack delivers an exceptional sound design that is dynamic sounding with loud SPL outbreaks and nuanced quiet moments. The sound design is similar to the original, as the sound or lack of must convey silence. Atmospherics enhance the haunting realism of the dire situations. Atmospherics play a predominant role in creating realism—this is also true for Foley sound effects. Sound effects really define the sound of the creatures and other eerie sounds. Sound effects are intense and aided by powerfully deep, and at times, sub 25 Hz bass extension. Low frequencies are very powerful but never overwhelmingly so. And the bass attacks support the horrors of the alien monster murders. The bass exhibits often sharp transients. To fully appreciate the nuanced subtleties in these two sound elements requires a home theatre capable of very low-level reproduction. The orchestral score is wonderfully supportive of the atmospheric and sound effects both in terms of subtle response and strength. The music occupies a wide and deep soundstage that extends to the surrounds for soundfield envelopment. The music provides the intense terror with bolts of energy and quite dynamic orchestrations. Surround energy is intense with directional discrete and panned localizations, especially during action sequences, Dialogue is both at normal volumes and quite subtle levels to escape being heard by the creatures. In each case spatial integration is realistic.

The Immersive Sound element is comprised of limited music extension to the height layer, selected atmospherics and sound effects such as helicopters circling overhead before the invasion and jets, thunderous mayhem, evacuation announcement, fast-moving creatures, soaking rain, rolling thunder, car alarm, and other minor effects. This is a generally quiet height layer other than what was identified. Still, this is a terrific height layer though not as active as could have been, given that New York City gives off an average 90 decibels, but then there is effective directionality.

This is a superb holosonic® spherical surround soundtrack whose sound design is dynamic and nuanced with good fidelity and dimensionaity ,as well as scary accentuated mayhem. (Gary Reber)