In 2018, A Quiet Place introduced a horror universe in which melon-headed blind aliens invade Earth and hunt and kill humans using sound. It’s a good movie. Its sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, is also good. Its prequel, A Quiet Place: Day One might actually be GREAT. Part II introduced more of a sci-fi edge that hints at how expansive this universe really is, but Day One shows that A Quiet Place could easily be a full-blown cinematic universe, with stories set at any point during or after the invasion anywhere in the world. And yet, Day One is also so good that it begs the question if the whole franchise should just stop here, with a nearly perfect film.
Prequels aren’t usually the most exciting part of a franchise, but as Day One involves a new set of characters in a different time and place from the other films (mostly), it doesn’t really feel like a prequel. In fact, you can easily understand Day One even without seeing either of the Quiet Place films. It’s a basic alien invasion story, with a “get to point X” plot, except Day One asks one major question: What if you don’t WANT to survive the apocalypse?
While Quiet Place director and co-writer John Krasinski has a story credit on Day One, the script itself comes from Michael Sarnoski, who also directs, and Day One feels very much like a Sarnoski film. His previous film, Pig, has a high-concept plot—a man seeks revenge for his lost truffle pig—that turns out to mine a rich emotional vein of family, loss, and nostalgia by way of pigs and food. Like Pig, Day One has its high-concept premise, but also like Pig, Sarnoski merely uses it as a jumping off point to explore a particular area of the human condition, in this case: death.
Samira (an excellent Lupita Nyong’o) is a young woman dying of cancer. She’s already outlived the doctor’s best estimates and knows she could die literally any day. Living is about dying for Samira, who is accompanied everywhere by her cat, Frodo. A hospice nurse (Alex Wolff) convinces her to go to New York City for a show, and she agrees on the promise that they will also get pizza. Except that day turns out to be the last day, or rather the first day, as it is the day the space melons arrive on Earth.
Day One does not make a meal out of Samira’s illness. We are shown how she deals with pain through medication, but that is it. Samira wears a sweater and a beanie and has short hair, those are her signs of illness. Sarnoski is supremely uninterested in suffering, which is interesting given this is a film in which a major character is terminally ill, and that people keep getting obliterated where they stand by aliens. But this is where Sarnoski’s craft comes to bear. The visual storytelling of Day One is STUNNING. Apocalyptic streetscapes tell a thousand sad stories with the detritus and bloody smudges left behind. Samira’s cluttered apartment tells of the thriving, successful life cancer took from her. A Quiet Place is an inherently visual concept, since the films have so little dialogue by design, but Sarnoski elevates the concept to a level that is as emotionally wrought as it is technically impressive.
With no real interest in seeking safety—why? To die over there instead?—Samira fixates on the pizza, which she wants from one specific place in Harlem. On her way there, she meets Eric (Joseph Quinn, proving his charismatic turn as Eddie in Stranger Things was not a fluke), a fish out of water Englishman stranded by the invasion. They’re an odd couple brought together by the faithful Frodo, and Eric commits to helping Samira get her pizza. From their relationship, Sarnoski mines the most human elements of the film, particularly finding companionship and hope at the literal end of the world. Samira’s life is still about dying, but through her and with her, Eric discovers his own will to live.
It also helps that Day One is unburdened by worldbuilding. Alien invasion movies are as old as cinema, and Sarnoski doesn’t bother reinventing the wheel. The invasion in straightforward, the silent rules quickly and clearly laid out. The only previously established character who shows up is Henri, played by Djimon Hounsou, who appears in Part II, but Day One is utterly unconcerned with his experience. He’s just there, a loose link in the chain, basically just an Easter egg for those who have seen the previous films. This frees Day One up to focus exclusively on Samira and Eric and their unique circumstances, which leads to one of the most emotional and beautifully connected moments you’ll find in a horror movie.
A Quiet Place: Day One is not your typical horror movie, nor your typical alien invasion flick. It’s a beautiful contemplation of the human condition in the worst circumstances, and an exploration of what it means to live when survival is impossible. There’s one dumb jump scare that feels inserted purely to make some executive happy, but other than that, Day One is less about fright than it is faith—in each other and our own determination if nothing else. Michael Sarnoski has perfected the trick of turning genre film into poetic cinema.
A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing exclusively in theaters. Nothing bad happens to the cat.
