A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – A woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing

My Take – Still lovingly known for his role in the smash-hit NBC sitcom series, The Office, John Krasinski‘s third directorial venture, A Quiet Place (2018), a sci-fi horror film, caught everyone completely off guard upon release.

The film not only paired Krasinski with his real-life powerhouse performer wife Emily Blunt on screen, but also introduced us to a post-apocalyptic American town, where any source of sound could cost one’s life at the hands (or legs) of brutal blind extraterrestrial creatures who had invaded the world some time ago.

Receiving all around acclaim for its performances, writing and sound design (or the absence of it), the film, which Krasinski co-wrote with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, turned out to be a massive box office success story, allowing the same team to expand upon the fictional world to an equally successful and acclaimed sequel, A Quiet Place Part II (2020), which built upon the setup further.

However, for the third entry into the franchise, Krasinski has handed over the reins to writer-director Michael Sarnoski (working from a story provided in part by Krasinski), who made his directorial debut with the drama film Pig (2021), for a spin-off and prequel, which as the title suggests, takes us back to when the nasty and aurally sensitive creatures first invaded Earth.

Introducing new characters and themes while preserving the previous two pictures’ nerve-wracking tension.

Though the film follows an unrelated story set within the same universe, surprisingly, it also proves to be not only larger in scope and intent, but a lot more intimate and sorrowful when it comes to the substance. Taking the franchise in a new and exciting direction, while staying true to what made audiences gravitate towards the series’ unnerving gimmick in the first place.

The change to NYC from the rural setting of the original two films particularly makes it feel larger in scale, something on the lines of celebrated disaster flicks like War of the Worlds (2005) and Cloverfield (2008).

Sure, it doesn’t reach the inspired heights of what came before, yet it is still a solid effort that combines some taut suspense with enough compelling and quieter dramatic moments. Leaving us much more excited for A Quiet Place Part III (2025).

The story follows Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill poet, who is slowly dying in a hospice located just outside New York City. Though physically and emotionally spent, it doesn’t stop her from taking the advice of Reuben (Alex Wolff), a care worker, and join some of her fellow patients traveling for a show in the city.

However, soon after, horrifying sightless aliens attack from the skies, slaughtering anything that makes a noise. While there, the city comes under attack from a race of alien invaders that hunt humans by sound. Unsure of what to do amid all the chaos and carnage, and keenly aware of her own impending mortality, Sam starts an unusual quest to get to Harlem for personal reasons.

Although she has her trusty emotional support cat, Frodo, by her side, Sam would prefer to be left alone. That changes when a complete stranger named Eric (Joseph Quinn), a British law student suffering extreme shock, starts following her around.

Unlike her, Eric is apparently reckoning with his own mortality for the first time ever as a young adult, and he’s not handling it well at all. From there, it’s a lot of crouching and freezing in place whenever the creatures are near, a similar move from the other films.

Just like its predecessors, the suspenseful set-pieces are clever, creative, and well-choreographed. Most importantly, director Sarnoski never fumbles his leap from the 2021 indie darling to a grand-scale Hollywood experience.

The intensity of barbaric attack sequences and the aliens are gruesome and as rapidly visceral as they always have been. But where the film mainly succeeds is by combining scenes of heart-pounding tension with heart-tugging drama.

While its predecessors took place in more naturally silent and removed locations, this one takes full advantage of the fact that it unfolds in possibly the noisiest city on Earth. The rules are the same here, but the approach has been inverted because there’s no way to fully escape sound in such a large and intricate place where loud activities are a part of everyday.

Though there’s plenty of well-executed alien action for those who enjoy suspense and scares, the film is most effective with its human drama at its center. At its heart, the film is a mournful and soulful meditation on grief and searching for the things that matter in times of crisis.

It’s a film about what we hang onto, and why we choose to either keep fighting or give up. Samira’s major quest in the film to Harlem is built around something so simple, darkly humorous, and immediately relatable that it adds a uniquely low stakes charm to a film that’s quite literally about the end of civilization as we know it.

Credit goes to Sarnoski‘s screenplay, who knew exactly how to keep the audience’s nerves at peak with the twists and turns, but also has a cat do the heavy lifting in most parts. Because every time the cat purred quietly or walked around, everyone collectively held their breath.

Performance wise, Lupita Nyong’o brings a very strong and compelling turn that showcases both fragility and autonomy in equal measure. Joseph Quinn does reasonably well too. Though saddled with a character who is not as well written, Quinn’s anxiety-addled lemming in business casual attire, sells his compassionate partnering with Sam becomes a feel-good union of lost souls.

In supporting roles, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou, who reprises his role from the second film, leave a strong mark. On the whole, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is a solidly effective horror prequel that is both tense and surprisingly poignant.