A Quiet Place: Day One

A Quiet Place: Day One

Genre: Horror/apocalypse thriller

Director: Michael Sarnoski

Released: 2024



     The Quiet Place franchise came out of nowhere with a bracing blast of much-needed originality and shows no signs of stopping, hence A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel going back to, you guessed it, the first day of the invasion by the sound-seeking alien bugs (hereafter referred to as super clickers because that's what they are) that enforce the movies' memorable library rules. 

     Whether or not Day One works for you will, I expect, be determined in large part by what you're looking for from it. If you're here in the hopes of another Quiet Place movie with people picking their way through dangerously noisy environments while super clickers just kind of chill in the background, you'll get your fill and then some. If, however, you're like me and you went into Day One wishing for an update to the formula, new understanding about the super clickers and their operations, or just a spin on the classic "walk-quietly-while-casting-anxious-glances-at-super-clickers" schtick, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.

     Day One centers around terminally ill Sam's unstoppable quest for a New York slice and her hanger on Eric, who I thought was named Aaron until I saw his name in the credits. There's not much to say about these two other than they're competently acted but fairly one dimensional characters whose struggles, motivations, hopes, and fears are painted in frustratingly broad strokes that precludes much chance of deeper connection with the audience. They don't have the same chemistry as the Abbott family, or the distinctive personalities that made our original gang so compelling. Eric and Sam don't have much in the way of backstories or, more concerningly, terribly engaging goals. Sam's hunt for pizza is tied to a once-mentioned story about a tradition shared by her and her father, but the movie doesn't do much more than mention it to ground it in any kind of deeper or more intriguing character work. It's just a generic last wish for the generic Tragically Dying Character that feels like it could be swapped out for any stereotypically saccharine "Just once more before I go" type quest. 

     It doesn't help that this quickly becomes Eric's main focus as well, negating any chance for a unique and potentially conflicting goal for him that could generate some badly needed dynamism or friction, and even that is compounded further by the movie's poor pacing. Scenes with the super clickers feel randomly inserted into the plot in order to break things up, and there's no creativity in the scenarios our heroes find themselves in. It's always just that they need to go somewhere and the super clickers are in the way. Cue loooooooong sequences of people tip toeing through rooms or across streets only to inevitably make a noise at the last minute, triggering a chase scene that deposits us (not always neatly) into the next talking scene. 

     This is a problem because by this point, we're more than familiar with how this goes. The super clickers were initially effective because they were fresh, unique movie monsters, and it feels like the franchise has yet to produce an effective way to keep them scary. I wanted Day One to give us new situations, new configurations of protagonist and monster beyond just the same old same old. To put it more clearly: the mere presence of the super clickers is no longer enough to generate tension, there needs to be more thought put into set pieces than simply relying on the proximity of super clickers to our heroes to put the audience at the edge of their seat. Maybe that means more potentially noisy settings for our heroes to get through like a room covered in broken glass or a motion-activated alarm to slip past, or maybe new subtypes of super clickers need to be introduced, but whatever the solution, it needs to come sooner rather than later. 

     Basically what I'm saying is that A Quiet Place: Day One is more of the same. It doesn't leverage the "day one" part of its title to provide the audience with a new hook nor does it innovate in the field of scene construction or monster lore. We still don't know how the clickers got here, what they want, or even if they kill to eat or just for the heck of it, and this movie straight up isn't interested in elaborating. It's hardly an unbearable watch, but unless you're really, really into the structure and plot makeup of the previous two films, there's really not much reason for you to hit the theater for it.


D+