A dying cancer patient confronts her own mortality through the lens of an apocalyptic alien invasion in A Quiet Place: Day One, an unexpectedly moving and frequently terrifying horror film now playing in Prague cinemas. This detached prequel to John Krasinski‘s two mainline Quiet Place films shares little in common with its predecessors other than the nature of its alien menace, and is all the better for it.
A Quiet Place: Day One, as its title implies, takes place on the first day of the alien invasion, as hospice patient Samara (Lupita Nyong’o, whose deeply-felt work here deserves awards consideration), dying of cancer with weeks or months left to live, travels with her cat Frodo to a marionette show in downtown Manhattan. Samara has long lost all hope and can barely stomach the idea of such entertainment, but empathetic nurse Rueben (Alex Wolff) ropes her into the trip with the promise of hitting up her favorite pizza joint on the way back.
But wouldn’tcha know it, a race of alien monsters just happens to invade Earth during the show, leaving Samara and other survivors trapped in a crumbling theater as the world goes to Hell. The basics are quickly established: these aliens are blind but have super-sensitive hearing, and swarm on any source of noise to locate their human victims.
But no human-devouring threat is going to prevent Samara from getting a slice before she dies, whether it be from cancer or monster, and the narrative of A Quiet Place: Day One quickly takes shape. As other characters (including one briefly played Djimon Hounsou, the only carryover from the earlier movies) quietly flee to the docks to escape Manhattan, as advised by military helicopters, Samara makes her way to Harlem.
Along the way, Samara and Frodo acquire a traveling companion in the form of British college student Eric (Joseph Quinn), lost in more ways than one, who is down with her journey for one last small slice of human comfort as the world collapses around them.
Because A Quiet Place: Day One takes place at the very outset of the invasion, it avoids some of the nagging questions of the earlier films, where characters have adapted to their new quiet world months or years later. Thoughts like why the characters don’t live in areas of constant noise avoided by the monsters, or why no one previously tried sonic weapons on them, aren’t a factor here.
Instead, our leads just want to survive the immediate threat without much of a thought for tomorrow, which nicely parallels Samara’s journey through the end of her life. And while the aliens represent a here-and-now menace, they also force Samara to confront her own mortality in a way that feels genuine and earned, no small feat for a franchise horror film.
A Quiet Place: Day One also boasts frequent well-executed scenes of horror suspense, including a claustrophobic journey through Manhattan sewers and a standout sequence where Eric and Frodo travel across girders through an alien lair on a mission to get Fentanyl for Samara (this must be one of the only movies you’ll see where the opioid is presented in a positive light).
Kudos to director Michael Sarnoski, who previously made the similarly soulful Nicolas Cage movie Pig, for not only executing a proficient horror film but imbuing it with a sense of meaning not typically found in films of this type. A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t the scariest movie of the year, an honor that might go to The First Omen or Longlegs, but might be the one that stays with you the longest.
And special mention for the feline performers behind Frodo (credited as Schnitzel and Nico), who deliver one of the most memorable animal performances in recent memory.
