A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Directed by: Michael Sarnoski
Premise: A prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place. A cancer patient (Lupita Nyong’o) and her cat visit New York City as Earth is invaded by extra-terrestrial creatures that hunt by sound. She joins with a law student (Joseph Quin) and together they search for a way out of the city.
What Works: A Quiet Place: Day One revisits the alien invasion premise and the first film’s emphasis on interpersonal relationships. One of the strongest elements of the original picture was its portrait of a family surviving under duress. The makers of Day One have come up with an equivalent scenario in which a cancer patient, her cat, and a law student end up together in the middle of an apocalyptic scenario and must help each other. Many of the strongest moments in Day One aren’t scares at all but the warm interpersonal moments between the two human leads. Sam, played by Lupita Nyong’o, is in hospice care and she has lost motivation to keep living but faced with a violent end and the welfare of her cat she finds inspiration. Nyong’o is terrific in Day One. She brings a sense of pathos and intelligence and depth of character that elevates the picture above a typical monster movie. Nyong’o is paired with Joseph Quin as a panicked law student. Their relationship is credible and has a human touch that makes these characters accessible. The filmmakers also use the cat quite well. Putting small animals in danger is an easy way of achieving audience sympathy but it works and it’s done effective here. Like its predecessors, Day One also uses sound effectively; loud sounds or the threat of creating them are frightening and create tension.
What Doesn’t: The duty of a prequel is to create context that alters and deepens our understanding of the existing movies. Day One does not do that. The film revisits the premise of A Quiet Place and reiterates it with new characters. In that respect, Day One is a lot like the horror sequels of the 1980s such as Friday the 13th Part 2 and Evil Dead 2 which were essentially remakes their predecessors. But the better examples of those sequels found ways to improve the material. Day One is another A Quiet Place movie and it doesn’t add anything to the series or to our understanding of this alien invasion. The prequel is arguably better than A Quiet Place Part II but it lacks the intensity and scares of the original picture. And setting the story during the invasion creates some credibility problems. No one seems all that surprised by the fact that aliens exist and there is no explanation of how everyone figures out that the creatures hunt by sound.
Bottom Line: A Quiet Place: Day One does not do much that is new with this franchise but it does do the premise well. The film is elevated by its lead performances from Joseph Quin and Lupita Nyong’o.
Episode: #1004 (July 14, 2024)