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Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
Prequels are a funny concept and are quite divisive within the medium of film, A Quiet Place: Day One included. After Jeff Nichols left the project due to creative differences, franchise creator John Krasinski sought out Pig filmmaker, Michael Sarnoski. With Pig impressing Krasinski, Sarnoski was hired to write and direct his version as a follow-up to his directorial debut. Serving as Sarnoski’s sophomore film, A Quiet Place: Day One is a prequel that can stand well enough alone. However, Day One faults in falling into genre cliché territory, and whether Sarnoski intended it to is unclear. Similarly to Pig, Sarnoski’s writing leads the audience in one direction, but it tends to want to go in another because of its characters.
Too Human to Care?
Samira “Sam” (Lupita Nyong’o) is a terminally ill character who has accepted death’s embrace, like an old friend. Her only comfort in life is her cat, Frodo. However, her long-term hospice nurse, Reuben (Alex Wolff), would like to think otherwise and convinces her to go to a puppet show in New York City. The show is thereafter interrupted by the invasion of the Death Angels. It’s a simple enough introduction back into this universe, and Nyong’o is exceptional as Sam, although the film sidetracks multiple times from here.
Throughout the film’s runtime, Sam is constantly reminded of what it’s like to truly be a person. It works for the most part, yet the exposition can also take precedence here for some odd reason. During the initial chaos, Henri (Djimon Hounsou) makes a point to signal to Sam to be quiet. Henri’s addition to the plot is welcoming as he perished during A Quiet Place: Part II.
After Reuben meets an unfortunate fate in an encounter with one of the creatures, Sam prepares to trek to Harlem in search of pizza. Once the government figures out the aliens are attracted to sound, it is announced that evacuation boats will be at the docks. In an eerie scene, a mob of people walk toward the docks, which feels like something out of Biblical scripture about doom. It’s almost as if the people accepted the creatures’ parasitic nature altogether and just wanted to give up or leave if they somehow can.
Too Much Juxtaposition?
While it’s always of great use in film, Sarnoski almost did it too much at times here. Eric (Joseph Quinn) is a mild-mannered English law student who narrowly encounters Frodo after he’s separated from Sam on their way to Harlem. Shell-shocked, he follows Frodo back to Sam. While she really just wants to be left alone, he manages to stick with her until they get to her old apartment. Thematically, Sam is ready to die, while Eric has probably never given it a thought—an interesting way to tackle a human element here.
Eric is almost cripplingly afraid of death. He’s seemingly more worried about his parents across the world rather than the danger lurking right outside the window. However, he does eventually find some purpose in helping Sam perform a mock last rites ritual. They survive their way to Harlem, and even with the pizzeria she wanted to visit destroyed, Eric finds another restaurant. They make their way to a club her father played at, and Eric cheers her up. The scene is a great reminder of the human moments within many horror films that we can forget in the gore of everything.
However, this doesn’t defeat the fact that Eric’s introduction merely feels like a way for more exposition to occur, rather than more story-driven moments. There is a scene in which Eric essentially rescues Frodo, but it doesn’t feel necessary because by this point Frodo has already proven plot worthy enough on his own. The main purpose of the scene is to finally show a bit more about the series’ antagonists and how they feed. Moreover, Joseph Quinn does a great job as Eric, and considering the film’s ending, it would be refreshing to see him in another spin-off film in the A Quiet Place universe.
Technical Details
With both of his films, especially Day One, Sarnoski has displayed great attention to detail with the framing of the action on screen. However, with Day One‘s sloppy editing, Pat Scola’s cinematography is what saves the film. In some ways, Sarnoski has the makings of a fantastic director. Yet, he feels a bit too concerned with exposition rather than solid, complete character moments. They can come off haphazardly due to this.
Still, his framing is great, and Quinn and Nyong’o force the camera to follow them through this chaos, rather than needing to be tracked or shot at weird angles. One of the best shots—also present in one of the trailers—features Eric distracting the creatures as they move. The camera work here, particularly, is fantastic and helps maintain the tone throughout these chase sequences.
Rather than remixing Marco Beltrami’s original theme, Alexis Grapsas’s own piece is a little more hopeful, which could be welcoming to some. While this isn’t necessarily a determent to the film, the original theme is grossly haunting and would have been great to add to the apocalyptic tone of the film. Overall, the score is a moving addition.
Final Thoughts on A Quiet Place: Day One
While A Quiet Place: Day One is a worthy standalone prequel, the film can sometimes fall into standard genre clichés that make it feel flat. Sarnoski’s sophomore feature is still concerned with raw exposition rather than helping it flow through characters. Most of the usage of the tropes is okay, but it’s unclear whether it was meant like this.
The human element explored was nice, but more so, the inclusion of both Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong’o as well as the film’s cinematography are its best aspects. The writing also kept Frodo alive, and it was a nice reminder of my own cats at home. Considering the harsh ending of the film, it would be interesting to see if they could bring back Quinn to tell another story set before the Abbott family’s place in the timeline. Overall, A Quiet Place: Day One opens the franchise up to great storytelling ideals.
3.5/5 stars.
Michael Sarnoski’s A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theatres!
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Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.