A Quiet Place: Day One

Review by Rob Hinkal

A Quiet Place: Day One, is a pretty good, if not great, horror film that rests on the shoulders of its lead performances. 

Set during the beginning of the alien invasion leading up to the events of A Quiet Place 1 & 2, Day One follows Sam (Lupita N’yongo) and Eric (Joseph Quinn) as they traverse New York in an attempt to flee the extraterrestrial beasts with the extra terrific hearing abilities. Much like Parts 1 & 2, Day One has all the common elements audiences have come to expect from the series. Some scares, some aliens, a LOT of quiet, and a great deal of emotional investment in its characters. While not as effective as its predecessors, Day One does feature some finely tuned emotional beats towards the film’s conclusion, but getting there can be a somewhat disinteresting and dry journey.

Nyongo and Quinn both turn in great performances here, expressing a range of different emotions with few words and giving the audience an easy way into the environment of the story where even the slightest of sounds equals swift death. But it’s hard not to compare the overall story of this film as an inferior entry when placed alongside previous franchise installments. It’s a well made film with some great jump scares and the aforementioned emotional connection in its later chapters, but it feels as though there is something missing at the core of the story to get the audience fully engaged. 

Now for a bit of a pet peeve… As a blockbuster horror/monster flick, it makes perfect sense that Sam’s cat is used multiple times to create dramatic tension and lead the characters into new, dangerous situations. But, after a while, it becomes tiring having to see our protagonists chase a cat through an all-but-demolished New York City when they likely could have gotten from point A to point B in a matter of hours without the frisky feline being so damn eager to make things difficult. At a certain point, you just feel like they need to let the cat go (with how much he travels and doesn’t get eaten, I think it’s fair to assume he could live a long and happy life even in the midst of an alien invasion). 

A Quiet Place: Day One is a well-made, decent blockbuster with enough chills and emotional beats to win over audiences yet not add much more depth to the world of its main installments.