A Quiet Place: Day One: gimmicky prequel has little to say

In Alien (1979), Ellen Ripley proved her humanity by risking her life to save a cat; A Quiet Place: Day One is a movie for people who dream of watching that scene over and over again. As promised by its subtitle, the third entry in the millennium’s most unlikely blockbuster franchise goes back to the primal scene of the extra-terrestrial colonisation dramatised by its predecessors; it’s set in New York on the day that a species of sightless, lethal creatures first made landfall via a meteor shower and instantly transformed humanity into an endangered species. (In case you haven’t seen the previous two movies, the aliens use a form of echolocation to track their prey; seen up close, their gaping maws resemble nothing so much as a massive, thrumming eardrum). In the midst of the chaos there is a small, implacable black-and-white kitty named Frodo, who hews closely to her owner Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) while providing much-needed cuddles. 

Typically, it’s a bad sign when a thriller must resort to animal reaction shots for emotional impact, and Day One is nothing if not shameless in this department: when in doubt, the filmmakers cut to the cat. One wonders if director Michael Sarnoski got this particular gig because of the tender human-animal metaphysics of his acclaimed 2021 indie Pig, in which Nicolas Cage braved hell to rescue his porcine friend, but whatever the reasons for his hire, he acquits himself well enough. Not only does he handle the various action set pieces with aplomb, but he gets a genuinely affecting performance out of Nyong’o, whose evolution as a neo-scream-queen belies the sensitivity of her talent. We learn early on that Sam is nearing the end of a terminal illness, and the actress’ refusal to either hyperbolise or condescend to the character’s vulnerability is admirable. 

Conceptually, Day One is fascinating: a survival story within a survival story, in which a person with every reason to be fatalistic decides to push back against an unexpected catastrophe less out of hope than as a matter of principle. But even with the emotional resonance supplied by its star, it still feels thin. When the first Quiet Place came out in 2018, it was interpreted in some corners as a metaphor for a new and virulent strain of American repression: a fable of resistance documenting an old-fashioned, flyover-country clan’s rage at being forcibly stifled. Half a decade later, however, any real symbolic resonance or residue has been subsumed into gimmickery; this movie about the necessity of keeping shtum under pressure doesn’t have much to say. 

► A Quiet Place: Day One is in UK cinemas now.