After the first two ‘Quiet Place’ films, both directed by John Krasinski it was not immediately obvious what the next step forward would be. The series was profitable enough to continue on, but if Krasinski wanted to pursue other projects, what action/horror director would be best fit to take the helm?

Color me surprised when I learned that the prequel to the series would be coming out, written and directed by indie darling director Michael Sarnoski, coming off his freshman outing of ‘Pig’, a story about loss, and how animals can heal us in ways we can’t imagine. ‘Pig’ is A QUIET film (hint hint, nudge nudge) that centers around whispered discussions of loss and depression. While whispering is certainly a theme in the Quiet Place franchise, they are largely silly smash em up alien movies where lack of dialogue often feeds into some slightly underwritten characters. But we’re not here for the characters in sci fi horror, right? We’re here to see big aliens eat people and to gasp audibly when they do, safe behind our delightful fourth wall.

‘Quite Place: Day One’ feels much more like a continuation of the Sarnoski cinematic universe than it does the ‘Quiet Place’ franchise. It centers around Samira (Lupita N’yongo) a cancer patient in hospice, and her adorable cat Frodo (who I would absolutely die for). Samira is glib, rude, sarcastic, and brash. She’s upset for the entirely valid reason that she is dying and there’s nothing she can do to stop it. During a day trip into the city to see a puppet show and allegedly get pizza the alien invasion starts before she can enjoy a slice from her favorite Harlem eatery. After hunkering down for short time she decides that she’s dying anyways, she wants to brave the ravaged wreck of NYC to quest northwards to Harlem and get the last slice she’ll ever have. And like any good quest, Sam has Frodo to keep her company.

The aliens in ‘Quiet Place’ are completely blind but have incredible hearing, so any noise at all could attract them. The film has a few ricks that cause for the high stakes tension we’re familiar with. When a character finds that a boiler has somehow clicked on, and is loudly banging away, he manages to shut it off and all seems safe, until he walks away and his shirt rips telling the aliens exactly where he is. The monsters can also be easily distracted and the thousands of abandoned cars in a desolate NYC make for regular props in the film. A lot of the horror sequence tenseness works best when the stakes are personal.

As Sam goes on her journey we see a New York that is unrecognizable, although oddly familiar. The ‘shelter in place’ order that goes out is certainly a callback to 2020, and anyone that was in a major American city during that time knows, the streets were oddly barren. As Sam ventures north, she starts running into more and more people until she is at the center of a churning mass of bodies, quietly trying to make their way to an evacuation point. But even as quiet as they’re trying to be, that amount of people cannot remain silent forever, and the aliens keen sense of hearing lures them to the crowd and chaos ensues. The comparison continues, even when people were being as safe as possible in 2020, too many people gathered together created mass loss of life.

Eventually Sam meets Eric (Joseph Quinn), a law school student from England who is drawn to Sam by Frodo. They don’t talk much so as to stay as safe as possible, but through whispered words and furtive looks they communicate enough. They are two broken and sad people, broken and sad before all this even started, and they have to find some solace in one another. The performances of Lupita and Quinn are what make this picture stand out. Even if some of the logic of what they’re doing and why doesn’t work, it feels like it works, and that’s good enough for the movies and good enough for me.

There are other larger issues as well, it often feels in the big action set pieces that Director Sarnoski would rather be anywhere else. The initial attack is through a haze of dust, so you’re unable to see any of the attackers. Many of the chase sequences feel rushed and not terribly exciting. It’s in the smaller quieter moments that Sarnoski hits the timbre of horror and suspense, not the big open aired “monsters hurriedly clawing down skyscrapers” or “characters running to jump onto a boat”. The movie seems uninterested in those set pieces so it’s difficult to figure out why I should be.

Regardless it’s nice to see a decent franchise land a talented director that has a fresh take. While I certainly hope this commercial and critical success doesn’t mean Michael Sarnoski is tied to ‘Quiet Places’ for years to come, I’m happy we got this one and will almost certainly be punching my ticket for the next.

3.5/5