Disclaimer: This review will contain some spoilers.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024), a prequel and spin-off to the original releases, A Quiet Place (2018) and A Quiet Place Part II, is a recent release that seems to be a mixed bag to the masses.
As a fan of the first film and someone who liked the sequel enough, I was intrigued when the third installment was announced. But the thing is, how much more this story can you tell unless you’re taking us to the beginning that we have been asking for? And I mean the beginning of the beginning, where we find out where the monsters came from, why they are what they are and why they do what they do.
A Quiet Place: Day One follows a woman named Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) who is dying from cancer. She lives in hospice care and one day, she’s been convinced to go out into Manhattan to enjoy a show. The invasion of the alien creatures begins during the show. Lots of people start to die. Sam makes her escape (or attempts to) with her cat, Frodo, and on the way, she meets a man named Eric (Joseph Quinn). Together, they try to get to their own versions of escape and survival.
Day One doesn’t have any of the original cast (except for Djimon who was in Part II). There are no deaf people and no sign language. The most you get are whispers and hand gestures.
Day One is very action packed compared to the first two films that had about equal parts action and drama. Day One does contain drama with Sam’s life going through cancer and hospice, as well as her father having died some time ago, but for the most part, it’s back-to-back action.
What I Liked (and then didn’t)
We got to explore what would happen in a large city. Both of the previous films take place in a more suburban setting where there’s still a decent amount of people before most of the citizens died, but it wasn’t nearly the same population as New York City. NYC is nonstop noise. How will they quiet down? It was fascinating to see.
The downside is… I don’t understand a few things about the noise. How did everyone figure out within what seemed like mere hours that the monsters were blind and used their hearing to know their surroundings? And then why is the military making loud noise with the helicopters and announcements? Okay, I get that to an extent. You want to alert everyone to the boats for safety. But who made the decision of who makes the announcements? They know now that they’re going to die because they’re being loud. Did the military sacrifice themselves? Did the helicopter fly on autopilot and announcements were made through the speaker and the person speaking was hiding elsewhere?
The cat, Frodo, has a special place in my heart because he’s just so cute. Noise wise, a cat was definitely the easier option for the movie. Can you imagine a dog? Now the dogs probably would’ve made everything so much more complicated. For the record, the cat lives in the movie so don’t worry about that. But even when you know that, the writers still torture you with his wellbeing. So many cheap scare shots I felt were happening. Once, twice, was fine. But it seemed like every other scene they did something with him that made you think he was going to die.
Also, I know the cat was covered, but it was with fabric. How did he come out dry being out of the water the first time they were being chased in the tunnel? Or are my eyeballs playing with me? But even with the fabric over him, going through water still should’ve gotten him at least a little wet.
I wish we would’ve gotten more information about the monsters. They did the same thing as the previous films- very little information. Yes, we know they’re aliens and invading. Yes, we know they are blind and can only use their hearing. But… where did they come from? Why are they the way they are? How do we get rid of them? If they make another film, I hope we focus more on that. We’ve had enough of the typical plot formula for these films now.
The ending was fine. It was sudden and a sacrifice that made sense. I expected there to be that type of ending, but I didn’t think it would be exactly as it was. I imagined it going one of two ways: she would’ve had your typically soft ending where she’s alone and then she gets to eat the pizza that she was waiting for, or she would’ve been dead when she did her first sacrifice run trying to get Eric and Frodo to safety on the boat. Neither of us happened. It was a disconnect of headphones from a boombox and then she was eaten. Bam, ending.
The movie was a fine addition to the franchise but it did feel like something was missing. Something other than the origin story of the monsters. I just can’t quite figure out what it is. But please, only give us a fourth movie if we get an actual origin story. It doesn’t need to be a full length feature film. I’ll happily accept a short film that gets uploaded on the Internet somewhere.
What were your thoughts on the film? Leave your comments below.
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