The third film in what is now officially a franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) acts as a prequel to the previous two films taking us to New York on the day that the attacks from the series’ alien nemeses first start. We follow Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminal cancer patient who is in the city for the first time in years when the attacks happen. While the rest of the city navigates these attacks in an attempt to get to the escape boats, Sam heads in the opposite direction to get pizza for what she believes will be the last time.
As you can probably tell from the synopsis I have provided, this film is quite a bit more small scale than its two predecessors, and I think because of that it is going to either sink or swim with viewers. I should probably clarify that it isn’t smaller scale when it comes to set pieces, in fact this is probably the most action packed this franchise has been so far. And so, it should be. Being set in New York on the first day of the attack, there is a lot you can do set piece wise with that premise and the film goes for it without ever feeling like it is jumping the shark. Is it particularly scary? Not really, although it does have several tense moments, but also scattered in are annoying jump scares that are not really that needed. But that isn’t really the focus of the film. The film is very narrative based with the character of Sam, and for me it really works. This is mostly due to Lupita Nyong’o who just continues to be excellent in every film she is in. But the narrative provides an interesting dichotomy, where the whole world has become surrounded by death and instead of escaping to the boats where she will be safe from the aliens, Sam instead charges further into the danger in order to relieve her past where she was happy and try to feel alive again. After all, she knows she is dying anyway, why not try to capture those moments of happiness before it happens. It allows the narrative to weave an interesting, more personal thread than the previous two films which were focused more on finding answers and ways to fight these aliens. Sam doesn’t care, she just wants pizza. But, like I said, I feel like this will mean that certain audience members who were hoping for more answers to be given might be disappointed by the direction the film takes, but for me it really works. Another very solid addition to what is a consistently good franchise.
A Quiet Place: Day One is available to watch in cinemas.
Comments