A Quiet Place: Day One Adds More Heart and Dimension to Alien Invasion Franchise
Title: A Quiet Place: Day One
First Non-Festival Release: June 26, 2024 (Theatrical Release)
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Writer: Michael Sarnoski, John Krasinksi, Bryan Woods
Runtime: 99 Minutes
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
Well before the Abbott family battles the death angels on their remote farm, Earth experienced the invasion without warning. Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) returns to New York City on a trip with residents in the same hospice program and her service cat, Frodo. Understandably, Sam is happy to leave the hospital and spend time in the city she loves, even if she feels disdain for the circumstances. Her day gets worse when the city is attacked by vicious alien creatures with a predilection for killing anything that makes noise. That makes for a tough situation in the city that never sleeps.
Another exciting entry in the modern hit franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One adds emotional depth in a one-off story.
Moving this franchise to New York brings a fresh twist and new danger to the story despite starting at its beginning. The constant scream of the Big Apple’s various machines, movements, and wildlife make for a disorienting premise for both predator and prey. America’s most populated city becomes claustrophobic with few routes of escape for survivors. The many skyscrapers and subways change from modern marvels of architecture and infrastructure into death traps. A Quiet Place: Day One effectively changes the landscape of its environment to keep the franchise feeling fresh.
Less about the ‘why’ this is happening and more about how it affects the people of New York, A Quiet Place: Day One invests in building real relationships with the survivors. Early on, Sam meets and saves Eric (Joseph Quinn) from drowning. Grateful for her intervention but also desperate for a companion to navigate the apocalypse, Eric latches on to Sam, much to her irritation. Eventually, she relents when Eric provides utility to her. Throughout the film, Sam, Eric, and Frodo fall into danger or deliver each other to salvation. This give and take allows the characters to showcase their strengths and their humanity. Sam and Eric are both committed to their individual journeys but also take time to provide care for the other when they truly need it. Their display of base human decency and compassion allows the message of hope to shine through A Quiet Place: Day One.
Sam becomes one of the more interesting characters to come from 2024’s slate of horror. Terminal cancer makes her survival prospects already grim, so A Quiet Place: Day One decides to show what living in your darkest moments can look like. On a quest to eat a slice of pizza from her favorite neighborhood joint, Sam’s motivations may seem perplexing to viewers but it makes perfect sense. Deep down, Sam knows she will not survive, so she seeks out some familiarity and comfort in the city that once brought her so much joy. In these final moments, it would be easy for Sam to default to cynicism but, instead, she chooses acts of hope by leading others to safety without jeopardizing her own. Sam’s story isn’t about sacrifice, it’s about relishing little moments of calm in the chaos and choosing to celebrate life despite being surrounded by death.
Even though A Quiet Place: Day One delivers on character development, it suffers from forgetting that it is indeed a prequel. Characters quickly deduce that sound draws in the creatures and goads them into attacking. The wild assumptions fade in importance once the survivors consistently evade death by sticking to their rules. Viewers understand that it fits in the universe’s logic, but it feels like A Quiet Place: Day One lets its crew get off too easy in figuring out their survival.
Reaches aside, A Quiet Place: Day One achieves its primary goal of scaring the ever-living shit out of viewers. Featuring a wide array of technically adept and unbearably tense set pieces, A Quiet Place: Day One embraces the carnage of an alien invasion while staying true to its intimate story. Playing with the sounds of the city, the crew weave in and out of natural safe zones where the aliens are blind to their presence. Bigger set pieces like a flooded subway tunnel and abandoned highway littered with cars offer plenty of push and pull with tension as survivors problem solve their way out of certain death.
Without changing the foundations of A Quiet Place too much, Day One carves out a unique perspective of the universe while executing the thrills and scares audiences love so much. Nyong’o is a force to be reckoned with and Quinn balances out the duo with his endearing panic. The end of the world isn’t about losing what you once had but embracing the humanity within to make it out alive without losing yourself. Don’t go in expecting it to change your perspective on the how and the why but do expect A Quiet Place: Day One to remind you of what it means to care for one another.
Overall Score? 8/10
