Movie Review | ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ – A satisfying chapter

It was a day like any other. A group takes a trip to see a show, and among them is Sam – played by Lupita Nyong’o – a terminally ill woman who mainly speaks in sarcasm, and prefers the company of her cat, Frodo. Suddenly, monsters fall from the sky, hunting by the slightest sound. The city that never sleeps falls eerily silent as the end of the world begins.

The original film throws audiences into the deep end. The nature of the aliens remains a mystery, save for a timely reveal of a weakness. With such information years away from being known, the characters of A Quiet Place: Day One are left up a creek without a paddle.

In the face of overwhelming odds, Sam’s mission is not to escape the threat. It’s not even to save her feline friend. Instead, Sam’s only goal across the desolate rubble, formerly known as New York City, is to retrieve a slice of pizza from her favourite restaurant in Harlem.

It sounds ridiculous, but A Quiet Place: Day One manages to take such a motivation and make it moving. Sam’s story is defined by loss, and grief, with an excellent performance by Nyong’o. Her perilous pursuit of pizza is her refusal to go out on any terms but her own.

To help her on this journey is Joseph Quinn as Eric. The two form a bond that demonstrates the empathy people can share in the face of adversity. While disaster films are quick to examine the cruelty that befalls humanity in a crisis, A Quiet Place: Day One dares to give its characters hearts.

As they fumble their way through the alien invasion, the film maximises tension. Every clang, crumple, or crash, fills the audience with dread as they await the quick arrival of unstoppable horror. One scene depicts a herd of humans whose combined shuffling becomes the ringing of a dinner bell for the beasts.

It will take you on an emotional ride, and it’s an effective fright fest. A Quiet Place: Day One is a deeper film than I expected, and still manages to deliver on tense action, making for a satisfying chapter in the Quiet Place saga.

Rating: Big Screen Watch

Damian Levy is a critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.