A Quiet Place: Day One Review – Still Quietly Effective
Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic
Like many, I was very taken with the monster thriller A Quiet Place. When there was almost immediate talk of a sequel, I was skeptical, but A Quiet Place Part II surprised me and won me over. When I heard there was a prequel coming, I was dubious. After seeing A Quiet Place: Day One, I need to stop doubting this franchise.
This prequel takes the audience back to Day One, the invasion of these monsters. It is set in the bustling metropolis of New York City, which the film points out at the beginning frequently has noise levels around 90 decibels. After following the Abbott family in the first two movies, this prequel focuses on Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill woman who lives in a hospice facility.
On a day trip into the city, she finds herself stranded in the city when the invasion occurs. Realizing that things are looking bleak for the world, but also not having much time left personally, she is determined to make a final pilgrimage to a location that has a special place in her heart, with her cat, Frodo, along for the journey. Along the way, she picks up a stray in the form of Eric (Joseph Quinn), a Brit in New York City attending law school. Together, they attempt to journey through the city while avoiding the new monstrous creatures quickly taking over the planet.
The tagline for this prequel of the monster invaders from another world that rely on sound to attack their prey is “Hear how it all began.” That’s a clever marketing ploy for a sci-fi/horror/thriller mashup, but the use of sound is vital to the premise of these movies. It makes for a unique movie experience, especially when seeing it with an audience in the theater, which has been unusually quiet and (presumably) attentive every time I’ve watched one of these films in theaters.
The looming sound threat in the first two movies was the noise coming from a newborn baby; this time, it is the cat, which you continually expect to meow or purr at an inopportune time. This is not so shocking because movies are usually risk-averse when killing off pets. This is the most well-behaved cat in movie history, and it only puts one character at risk when they enter a construction site.
The story for this prequel is set in the bustling streets of New York, which opens the plot up to a sandbox of opportunities to play with: hiding under vehicles, daring to venture down into the subway system, and attempting to cut through buildings undetected. These are the tropes of post-apocalyptic movies, shows, and video games, and director Michael Sarnoski and crew deploy them effectively. The subway sequence is quite harrowing.
You could almost argue that someone like Lupita Nyong’o is overqualified to be in a movie like this, but her presence in the film enhances it. Her character, Sam, is a little cynical and jaded because of her health condition and doesn’t treat people trying to help her as well as she could. Right before everything goes to hell, when Alex Wolff’s character Reuben, a hospice care worker, says they’re friends, she coldly shoots back that he’s not her friend; he’s a nurse.
Sam’s journey to Harlem and her befriending Eric gives her purpose and maybe a chance at redemption or release from her regret over how she treated Reuben. It’s also a chance, maybe her last chance, to take back some control of the narrative of her life. Having a terminal illness at a young age, she feels cheated by life, and now, amid this apocalyptic chaos, the one small thing she was looking forward to is being deprived once more.
Fixating on one small goal is her defiance in the face of existential threat and refusing to be cheated once more by circumstances beyond her control. Weirdly, it reminded me of Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee in Zombieland, determined to find the last Twinkie.
Since becoming popular as Eddie Munson on Netflix’s Stranger Things, this is the first major movie role for actor Joseph Quinn. His character, quite literally, pops up out of nowhere about a third of the way through the film and practically forces a connection with Sam despite her initial reluctance to have him tag along. It turns out that she needs some human connection on this final journey, and he feels utterly lost until he crosses paths with her. Djimon Hounsou also has a supporting role, but it was surprisingly shorter than the trailers suggested.
The journey through New York City is tense and fraught all the way through, but the film does feel like it takes some shortcuts of convenience; most significant is how quickly people seem to catch on that the monsters are attracted to sound. Sam is knocked out after the initial attack, and when she comes to, everyone seems to know not to make a sound, and the government is already alerting people through emergency means of this as well. It feels a bit too pat and convenient. A simple scene of someone, anyone, figuring this out would have gone a long way. Instead, it’s just glossed over.
The change to an urban environment is enough to keep A Quiet Place: Day One feeling fresh. It still manages to hold the audience’s attention effectively. I don’t know how long they can continue to make the formula work, but I have learned my lesson when doubting this franchise’s makers.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars