Back in 2018, Stranger Things fever was sweeping the globe with audiences around the world lapping up the sci-fi horror alien vibe the series brought to Netflix. The perfect opportunity then, for Hollywood mega couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to release their own take on the genre.
A Quiet Place was a critical and commercial success, becoming one of the most successful sci-fi horror films ever made. People loved the experience of watching a film in almost silence, and that novelty didn’t wear off for its 2020 sequel, which, while being bigger in scale, showed this new series had legs.
Fast forward four years and Krasinski hands over directorial duties to Michael Sarnoski – whose only other feature film is Pig, starring Nicolas Cage. Was this a masterstroke by Krasinski or the franchise’s undoing?
When New York City comes under attack from an alien invasion, a woman (Lupita Nyong’o) and other survivors try to find a way to safety. They soon learn that they must remain absolutely silent as the mysterious creatures are drawn to the slightest sound.
Day One begins by setting up our main character – Nyong’o’s Samira, living with terminal cancer in a hospice alongside her cat, Frodo (who steals the show in a few instances). Samira’s condition is an emotional gut punch straight out of the gate, and the film has many more of them. In a similar vein to its predecessors, this prequel neatly navigates through the human emotion with the alien action we all know – and more importantly, want to see.
As Samira and the patients of the hospice visit a New York City theatre, the world is turned upside down by the alien invasion. It’s a nicely shot sequence filmed through dust and ash – with the gore limited to a few blood splatters here and there. It’s at this point that the film brings back its party trick – eerie silence. Alongside the previous two films, I absolutely love being in a cinema in complete silence, watching the events unfold on the big screen. I can’t think of a film that stuns the audience into silence quite like A Quiet Place does.
Samira’s goal among all the devastation is to visit a famous pizza spot to grab her last ever slice of pizza. It acts as a McGuffin of sorts as Nyong’o tries to get to Harlem for this almost mythical pizza. Is it a bit silly? Yes, absolutely. Do I care? Not so much.
Stranger Thing’s latest heartthrob Joseph Quinn shows up just as we enter the film’s second half and quickly establishes himself as one to watch in Hollywood. His big doe eyes exquisitely portray emotion and the bond he shares with Samira after initial animosity is genuinely nice to see. It doesn’t quite have the same impact as Krasinski and Blunt’s family unit, but these characters are more fleshed out than the majority of those in the genre.
A scene in an abandoned jazz club really highlights how Sarnoski (who also wrote the script) wanted the film to go – this is character first, invasion second, and I quite like that.
The aliens themselves are uninspiring lets be honest – they look exactly the same as the demogorgons from Stranger Things and the CGI used to create them is mediocre at best, but it’s what they make the characters do that makes them so terrifying. Every footstep, every crunch of leaves or glass underfoot is truly unnerving.
Unfortunately, the film does play fast and loose with the rules of what these aliens can and can’t hear. The first two movies suffered from the same issues, but the more secluded location allowed the writers to get away with it. Here, that’s not quite the case. Are we really supposed to believe that a suitcase closing summons a whole horde of the beasts?
And while Frodo the cat is sure to become one of Hollywood’s most famous felines following his starring role here, the film conveniently forgets where he is on more than one occasion – particularly during chase scenes. It’s a small, but frustrating gripe.
Overall, A Quiet Place: Day One is an enjoyable and emotionally rich prequel to what is now one of the best trilogies in the genre. Fantastic performances from Quinn and Nyong’o anchor the film – and despite its grand city scale, it still manages to deliver on the claustrophobic atmosphere its predecessors are now famed for.
