Prequel shrinks movie's silent world

Writer-director Michael Sarnoski takes reins from John Krasinski in series’ third entry.

Adam Graham
| Detroit News Film Critic

In “A Quiet Place: Day One,” the alien beings who really don’t appreciate noise arrive here on Earth, the beginning of sending humans scattering, eventually, to the desolate surroundings we saw in 2018’s “A Quiet Place” and its 2020 sequel.

We don’t learn anything about their purpose here or from whence they came, or why, since they’re obviously fans of silence, they chose to embark on New York City of all places. Rather, this tightly controlled thriller focuses on the first person experience of one New Yorker, who already has enough on her hands without an invasion of quiet-seeking alien monsters ruining her day.

That’s Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), who is living out her final days in a hospice facility, waning away with terminal cancer, but still spunky enough to let everyone around her know how much she doesn’t appreciate the way they smell. She’s given a chance to go into New York City one last time — her last visit was supposed to be her last visit, she tells Reuben (Alex Wolff), who is organizing the trip — and off she goes, hoping to stop off at Patsy’s , her favorite Harlem pizza spot, for one last slice.

It’s a bad day to be in New York, it turns out. Or anywhere really, since the aliens make their sudden, unannounced descent and wreak havoc on not just the Big Apple, but anywhere where there’s sound above a whisper. (So everywhere, really.) The city scene quickly descends into chaos, as people are forced to quickly learn that sound, any sound at all, is a no-no, and there’s an extremely slight margin of error.

With her trusty cat by her side — this quiet place is no place for barking dogs, unfortunately — Sam navigates her way through the madness, essentially on her tiptoes. She’s joined by Eric (Joseph Quinn), a doe-eyed stranger who clings to her like a lost dog, who tries to help her find her way to Harlem, where her beloved Patsy’s awaits, even though she knows no one is going to be there doling out pies.

Writer-director Michael Sarnoski (2021’s “Pig,” starring Nic Cage) fashions this prequel as a soulful personal journey, set against a backdrop of pure chaos. He’s not interested in the story’s larger implications, but rather in telling Sam’s story, using what we know about the “Quiet Place” universe as a backdrop.

Within that framework, “Day One” is mostly effective. There are some quibbles about the rules of sound and how much one can make without attracting the attention of the long-legged, highly irritable and utterly unforgiving monsters. (Would using the backdrop of thunder to let out a cathartic scream really be worth the risk?) And the Eric character is a bit of a wet blanket, and it’s questionable how much tolerance Sam would really have for him.

But “Day One” is notable in the way it shrinks rather than expands the “Quiet Place” story. It feels like a bottle episode in a TV series, a one-off side story rather than a piece of opportunistic franchise expansion. For that, it deserves a tiny amount of applause, or at least a small, silent nod of appreciation.

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‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

GRADE: B

Rated PG-13: for terror and violent content/bloody images

Running time: 99 minutes

In theaters