If you watched the trailers for “A Quiet Place: Day One,” you’d probably expect some mix of a disaster movie, thriller, and horror flick. The story revolves around the franchise’s signature sound-hunting monsters crashing into the dense and noisy metropolis of New York City, promising the action-packed backstory of the post-apocalyptic America of “A Quiet Place” and “A Quiet Place Part II.”
However, while “Day One” has its share of jump scares and chase sequences, it’s a remarkably, well, quiet movie. Directed by Michael Sarnoski (his second feature-length film), the movie follows Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill hospice patient, and Eric (Joseph Quinn), an English law student stranded in New York, as they navigate the disaster and learn to work together. The two are the only characters who get significant screen time in the film, but they form a fantastic duo. Nyong’o’s steady and resigned Samira leads, but also regains some purpose in her life after meeting Quinn’s timid yet more upbeat Eric.
“Day One” is surprisingly low on plot. Samira wants pizza and Eric wants to escape, but there’s no clear-cut structure to the film. The characters spend a lot of time just wandering and surviving, which is accurate to an apocalyptic scenario, but the pacing can suffer as a result. It feels mildly empty at times, but does pick up by the end.
Fans hoping for the story of where the franchise’s aliens came from or how the government attempted to fight back will be let down – in a twist right out of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” Samira is knocked unconscious for the bulk of the initial invasion. There are some exceptions, but she, as well as the audience, miss out on much of the chaos and carnage promised in the film’s marketing.
Instead, “A Quiet Place: Day One” is remarkably small despite its large-scale potential. But once you get used to it, the film presents an at-times poignant human story close to the quality of 2018’s “A Quiet Place.” More importantly, it avoids the pitfalls that made “Part II” a solid, but ultimately formulaic sequel. At just 99 minutes, “Day One” is a well-made addition to the “Quiet Place” series that remembers heart is more important than horror when it comes to the franchise’s strengths.
At a glance:
Directed by Michael Sarnoski
Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, and Eliane Umuhire
Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3.5/5
