TL;DR – A gripping work that holds onto you from those first minutes and never lets up as the world collapses around it.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this movie.

A Quiet Place: Day One Review –

It is time to step back into this universe that oscillates between complete quiet and a riot of explosions. I fundamentally enjoyed both A Quiet Place and its follow-up, A Quiet Place Part II. However, both of those films looked at how this apocalypse would affect a small town. It is now time to take this roadshow to a large city, which is, in fact, one of the largest cities in the world, and see just what would happen.

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) lives in a hospice counting down her days on earth through the prism of forced poetry when one of the nurses, Reuben (Alex Wolff), convinces her and her support cat Frodo (Schnitzel & Nico) to come into New York City to see a play. While there, the puppet show had to be finished early because something was going down in New York, and the Hospice wanted them all home, which was when the first explosion hit.

I cannot talk about this film without first giving all the praise to Lupita Nyong’o, who is giving her all in this film. There is such a small cast, and so much of the emotional resonance depends on her and the complex emotions she is going through. There are times when her character is in complete control and others when others are guiding her, but your focus is always on her and her emotions, which is all true even before I read that she had a phobia of cats before doing this film. This is also the first film in the alien invasion space that I have seen where our lead is already dying, and soon. This dramatically shifts her perspectives and needs in a way that completely changes the film.     

Then, of course, there are the visuals, which are taken to the next level here. A lot of films want to lean on the iconography of 9/11, which usually had poor outcomes. For example, see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But here they make it work, not just because they have set the film in New York City, but because they understand the power of that imagery, and it is not used cheaply. It has weight. They did an excellent job of recreating New York City; I didn’t know it was mostly filmed on a set until looking into it. Also, all the action beats work well, from the slow, careful movements to a mad dash in an instant.

Much like the previous films, much of the tension of this film is based on taking something so ordinary, like making a noise and giving it tangible, deadly danger. Every step could be on a piece of glass, and you are dead. Your clothes could catch on something, or a person next to you makes a yell, and then you are dead. Everyone knows what it is like to try and sneak by someone, step on those places on the stairs that won’t make a sound. So, it becomes ingrained in you, and you see danger everywhere. I will say that I like that they gave the aliens a bit more tangible weight to them this time. You really feel their presence.

All the interactions feel both predictable and understandable. You genuinely feel sad for everyone caught up in the situation, bar that one person who took their wheely luggage on the long march south; you ruined it for everyone. I liked that the people on the ground started to understand the creatures much faster than the authorities, with characters using decoys and areas of high natural sound to hide in quite quickly. Also, it was interesting to see that at least some vestiges of the government lasted a couple of days.  

Now, could I nitpick if I wanted to? Sure. There are some digital seams that you can see in the editing; the cat has a lead, why is it not on its lead (so they can make the action scenes work) and why does it always know where to go, and the film is real loosey-goosey on the properties of paper not to get wet when submerged in water. However, they did not matter to me. What I did start to find to be an issue is that we are three films into this series, and we still have absolutely no idea the why, how, or even the what these aliens are. We get two little bits of information: It is confirmed that the invasion was global, and some small areas were terraformed for feeding. But why kill everyone? Are they being eaten? Well, clearly not, but maybe. I think we are at the point where playing coy has been played out.     

In the end, do we recommend A Quiet Place: Day One? Absolutely, we do. It had all the impact of the previous films, but with a narrower focus, but a larger scope. If you liked A Quiet Place: Day One, we would recommend to you Cargo.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched A Quiet Place: Day One?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of A Quiet Place: Day One
Directed by – Michael Sarnoski
Screenplay by – Michael Sarnoski
Story by – John Krasinski & Michael Sarnoski
Based on – A Quiet Place by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck
Music by – Alexis Grapsas
Cinematography by – Pat Scola
Edited by – Gregory Plotkin & Andrew Mondshein
Production/Distribution Companies – Platinum Dunes, Sunday Night Productions & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff & Djimon Hounsou with Alfie Todd, Eliane Umuhire, Takunda Khumalo, Ronnie Le Drew & Michael Roberts and Schnitzel & Nico
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 15; United States: PG-13