A Quiet Place: Day One

In cinemas now

As is often the case with franchise filmmaking, it’s questionable whether A Quiet Place prequel was needed but, with circa $178m already banked from a $67m budget, the end has seemingly justified the means. Michael Sarnoski, whose 2021 debut Pig impressed, picks up the writer-director baton from Jeff Nichols, who dropped out of the project to presumably focus on his recently released passion project The Bikeriders. 

Sarnoski’s screenplay is focused on the terminally ill Sam (Lupita Nyong'o), who dreams of escaping the confines of the hospice she resides in and eating at her favourite pizza joint in NYC. It’s not long before a field trip and subsequent alien invasion gives her the chance to do exactly that, albeit at the risk of being mauled to death by Earth’s newest inhabitants. Nyong’o shares top billing with Stranger Things' Joseph Quinn, who plays a lonely and frightened law student who follows her on her quest.

Although Nyong’o and Quinn’s chemistry is nowhere near as compelling as that shared by the main characters of the previous A Quiet Place films, it does ground this otherwise perfunctory thriller in a modicum of emotion. That being said, both actors are arguably outshone by the real-life cats that perform as Sam’s feline companion Frodo, who manages to hold his nerve better than any of the film’s human characters. 

Sadly, the primary reason for that is that Day One really isn’t that scary, a shortcoming which is pretty much inexcusable when working with a premise as ingenious as that of John Krasinki’s original feature. The film’s modest runtime subsequently often feels far longer than it is, making the journey to its crescendo a mostly arduous one. Even the efforts of a performer as skilled as Nyong’o isn’t enough to elevate this beyond being another uninspired Hollywood spinoff.