One of the most ominous things in the trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One was the promise that the movie would reveal "how our world went quiet." If there's anything this franchise doesn't need, it's belabored explanations for why those sound-sensitive aliens came to Earth. That kind of lore is good for Wikis, not movies. Thankfully, Day One as an actual motion picture is not interested in such explanations. Instead, writer/director Michael Sarnoski has delivered a new Quiet Place saga that keeps the frights of the previous two films intact. Meanwhile, the more intimate parts of the piece are shockingly reminiscent of Sarnoski's 2021 indie classic Pig. Unlike Michel Gondry dojng The Green Hornet or Ben Wheatley on Meg 2: The Trench, Sarnoski kept his creative spirit intact through the franchise filmmaking meat-grinder.
Day One begins in New York City, with protagonist Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) living in hospice care. With a severe form of cancer running through her veins, Sam doesn't have long to live. This fate has led her to become understandably surly with others save for her cat Frodo. While traveling into the city with other hospice patients, a seemingly routine day turns into a nightmare as those Quiet Place aliens descend from the heavens. Immediately turning New York City into a shell of itself, most people in the city begin to head towards evacuation boats. Sam, however, is determined to get a slice of pizza at Patsy's in Harlem. On her journey across the city, Sam encounters Eric (Joseph Quinn), a law student overwhelmed with everything happening around them.
The first two Quiet Places were about survival at all costs. These were horror films about the classical nuclear family attempting to endure the apocalypse. A Quiet Place: Day One nicely differentiates itself from its predecessor by opting for a story recognizing how life is finite. What do you want to do with your limited existence? What do you want to consider important in your life? "We don't get a lot of things to care about," as a previous Sarnoski protagonist once proclaimed. What you do care about, then, should matter. Filtering the story through that lens works on multiple layers. It gives Day One a distinct identity and lends Sarnoski familiar thematic terrain he can deftly handle.
That intimate gaze is something Lupite Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn handle quite nicely. Neither performer delivers work suggesting they're phoning this material in because this is summertime franchise fare. The dramatic material clicks into place partially because of their commitment and believability. Nyong'o especially is such a fascinating presence on screen. There's always been something so instantly meaningful and layered about her facial expressions. Like the great silent movie performers, Nyong'o has consistently demonstrated a gift for communicating so much with just a look or a tilt of the head. What better place to use that skill than in a Quiet Place installment?
Thanks to competent writing from Sarnoski and two solid leads, A Quite Place: Day One is perfectly fine summertime entertainment. It's the kind of movie that registers as perfectly pleasant Friday night fare, with the biggest thing holding it back from greater heights being the more generic scare sequences. Sarnoski leans heavily on jump-scares when it's time for frights in lengthy set pieces that don't add new visual or conceptual flourishes to what's been previously established in the Quiet Place saga. To be sure, some fun chase scenes abound, especially one involving the main duo trying to get past an alien in the sewer. However, the frights don't receive nearly as much personality as the character beats.
Still, Day One functioning as a reasonable extension of the Quiet Place universe is quite surprising (pleasantly so!) considering how the very idea of sequels in this franchise initially sounded like a doomed prospect. Sometimes, it's the simple things that keep your prequel afloat, like emphasizing a cute kitty or taking cues from a movie as good as Pig. Eschewing simple origin stories for the aliens also helps!
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