The horror drama A Quiet Place: Day One hit theaters this weekend, providing solid heart-pounding escapism for moviegoers. Directed by Michael Sarnoski, of Pig fame, the prequel follows a terminally ill woman (Lupita Nyong’o) as she spends her last days in New York amidst the terrifying alien invasion witnessed in 2018’s A Quiet Place and its 2020 sequel. Day One is a well-acted summer blockbuster featuring a strong supporting cast of Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou. Where does it rank among the other A Quiet Place movies? Read on to find out.
3) A Quiet Place Part II (2018)
A Quiet Place Part II is perfectly fine, so long as you don’t think about it too much. Picking up immediately after the first picture, we find the Abbott family navigating through the alien invasion equipped with more knowledge and firepower. Naturally, problems ensue, and nearly every survivor they encounter carries a heap of trouble. Eventually, they discover an island with survivors containing a radio station powerful enough to wipe out the aliens with high-frequency audio feedback.
Episodic and redundant, A Quiet Place Part II starts strong but doesn’t hit the high marks achieved by its predecessor. Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, and Millicent Simmonds are terrific in their respective roles but struggle to overcome the grim, downbeat tone that trades summer thrills for melodrama.
I walked out with more questions than answers, which is one reason this sequel is at the bottom of our rankings of A Quiet Place movies.
2) A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Beautifully acted and wonderfully shot, Day One unfortunately follows the same beats as the previous entries and does nothing to propel the franchise in a novel new direction. I’m still baffled at the decision to paint this saga about blind alien monsters with a thick coat of over-the-top melodrama. Where’s the fun, the excitement, the thrills?
The picture overall is fine. As stated, Day One is a solid production filled with tense set pieces and nuanced character work. It’s just that everyone takes themselves and this absurd premise far too seriously. Each scene features a character crying or on the verge of crying. Eventually, scene patterns become predictable—a person quietly wanders around a room for a few seconds, an alien appears, and someone eventually kicks an object, leading to a brief action sequence. Rinse and repeat.
Imagine various iterations of the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park spread over two hours.
A Quiet Place laid a shaky foundation for the sequels to build on. The aliens’ limitations are never fully explained. They cannot see and possess super hearing that comes and goes depending on the needs of the script. At one point, they ignore loud noises like generators and gunfire, only to arrive when a character’s shirt makes a slight tearing sound. Are these beings smart or dumb? At a certain point, you wonder why our heroes don’t toss more bottles or rocks as a distraction.
Day One is certainly more thoughtful than your average summer flick. I liked that Lupita Nyong’o’s character, Sam, aimed to eat a slice of pizza before she died from cancer. Her chemistry with Alex Wolff carries the second half, even when their dramatic episodes become more tiresome.
Ultimately, Day One is worth a watch for viewers seeking well-acted drama spliced with harrowing moments of tension. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that these pictures should be more, ah, thrilling and fun.
1) A Quiet Place (2018)
Though it suffers from the same issues as its sequels, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place deserves respect for its original premise and ability to mine the most from its concept and is at the top of our list of A Quiet Place movies. The film follows a family living in a world overrun by dangerous, albeit blind, extraterrestrial beings armed with super hearing. Basically, these creatures exist to allow Krasinski and co-star Emily Blunt to show off their incredible acting chops, and the pair deliver the goods.
A Quiet Place is packed with a plethora of tense situations and strong character beats that’ll keep viewers invested, even if the gimmick wears thin after a while.
Jeff Ames
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