A Quiet Place: Day One

This weekend, A Quiet Place: Day One, the newest film in the A Quiet Place franchise, releases in theaters. A Quiet Place: Day One takes place in New York City on the first day of the alien invasion that silenced the world. It follows Samira, a hospice cancer patient as she tries to navigate the city and avoid the aliens. I enjoyed the first two films in the series and thought this prequel was a fun and interesting way to take things.

I thought that this movie was excellent. It brought a nice change of pace to the small-scale nature of the previous two films. I like that this movie takes place in an urban setting as compared to the rural setting of the other films. It adds this whole new dynamic as people have to react differently to the alien invasion. It is a whole lot harder for a big city to be quiet than a small town. I thought this movie did a good job of fleshing out this world. We get to see the beginning of the alien attack. We got a bit of that in Part 2 but this movie further dwells on it and shows the initial aftermath and reaction to the invasion. Doing it this way allows the audience to see how people figured out how to survive. This movie also gives us a bit more information on the aliens themselves and how they interact with each other. There is a really great scene that shows the aliens signaling to each other when they encounter some food. While this movie shows the initial alien invasion is it ultimately about Samira and her learning how to live again. At the beginning of the movie, Samira is a very negative person as she knows she is going to die from cancer. However, as the invasion takes place and she encounters other characters, she learns to enjoy the little things in life a little more, and by the time the ending rolls around is at peace with her eventual death. Finally, I liked how the movie was very short and to the point. It clocks in at about 100 minutes but still manages to tell a compelling story. It doesn't feel rushed or cramped but just manages to tell a very simple story.

There aren't too many negatives to this film other than a couple of small issues. One of the issues is just the use of the Eric character. He doesn't really get much depth to him. We don't know much about him other than he is alone in the city. He is mainly there to help Samira in her journey but I feel like he could have had a little growth of his own. I also thought that the whole reason for her venturing out was a bit silly. I get that it has this connection to her dad but it is just kind of a dumb reason to be leaving safety. Finally, I felt that this movie just didn't have the emotional depth of the other films. It does have some emotion but it is not as deep as the other films nor are the characters really as established. Part of that is probably because the other movies were about a single family while this movie is about two strangers in NYC.

Overall, this is a very good horror film and a solid addition to the Quiet Place series. It takes what works about the other films and adds a slightly different setting to make it something unique.

Score: 8/10 Grade: B+ Recommendation: Check it out