2 out of 5

Directed by: Michael Sarnoski

I admittedly haven’t been too keen on the Quiet Place “franchise” – the fact that I’m putting that into quotes already telling in that regard – but I’ve been curious to see it chug along due to its worthwhile central conceit: a post-alien invasion Earth where the invaders hunt solely based on sound. While that may not be 100% original, the original film carried with it a kind of all-in dedication to the idea, suggesting we’d build out a world where the logistics of trying to go truly noiseless – and the effects that would have on the family unit – could be explored.

To me, the flick was a bit maudlin and didn’t necessarily sell its tension, but the second film’s potential to expand its scope outward fell flatter; a spin-off that would not be tied to the Abbott family felt like a good way to reset, and though I’m maybe more interested in the after-apocalypse than the before, knowing that Day One was a prequel nonetheless provided further opportunity for the movie to be its own thing, as the “Quiet”-verse’s commonality thus far is really just its alien baddies.

Unfortunately, although Day One does strike upon a thoughtful angle for exploration, and provides two good lead actors for doing so, it lands at about the competence of the second movie – flim-flamming unevenly between tones, and flagrantly ignoring any lore “rules” to the extreme detriment of its immersion. It also kind of bungles any promise of its title by essentially jumping right into similar antics we’ve seen before, i.e. there’s really nothing that defines this as needing to take place before the other films.

But let’s rewind to the positives for a moment: we start the morning before the invasion, witnessing hospice resident and cancer patient Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) being recalcitrant and understandably resigned to her future; group therapy sessions and invites to activities in the city of New York don’t do much to change that. …However, the lure of NY pizza does, and Sam agrees to a day trip to a movie, on the promise of a slice. The “movie” turns out to be a puppet show, but this misdirect is fine, as long as the cheese and bread reward remains intact. Alas, alarming, if vague, news chatter sends the hospice group scrambling to return home, only for their bus ride to be violently interrupted by the arriving “death angels.”

This opening runup and sequence is very effective. Sam’s POV is a unique one, going into horrific events, and her very relatable desire – as she spends the movie on her pizza quest – is a pretty brilliant juxtaposition to the surrounding insanity. Director Michael Sarnoski and his team find an intimate, up close visual style that properly captures Sam’s isolation, and how that’s amped up by the chaos. Later, when she’s joined in her quest by a shell-shocked man (Joseph Quinn) who takes to the simplicity of the goal, the film smartly doesn’t fuss with unnecessary meet-cuteness, and encourages us to appreciate how humanity pokes through, even at the most trying times.

Unfortunately, that encouragement is about as deep as it goes. Being mostly wordless didn’t prevent the original Quiet Place from blending its story with character work; Sarnoski’s script and film want that same balance but suffer because of a dumb difference with the first flick: the movie assumes we know all about these aliens. Everyone in Day One just gets it, within hours of the invasion: don’t make a sound. No one’s really panicking about the aliens themselves – asking Whats or Whys – as instead just telling everyone to shush and trying to make their way to boats. While, yes, the audience surely does get it, with this being a third movie in a series, even long-running franchises take a beat to kind of review the stakes and concepts of what’s what with characters, especially if those characters are new to that franchise. (And especially if this is the first true day everyone in Day One is witnessing this stuff.)

This is further doubled-down by what were possibly budget constraints in depicting the invasion: the initial impact is well-done, but the city goes into I Am Legend catastrophe immediately after. Abandoned streets; completely wrecked buildings. The entire city is devoid of people, and the aliens apparently occupy every single street and are inside every building and are even underground, with no real sense of progress to that – they’re just there. If Sarnoski wanted to focus more on characters, they have to be real, and exist in a “real” version of this world, otherwise – what’s the point of setting it in the Quiet Place-verse?

Following this thread: the sound design. It killed me. The slightest crinkle can attract the creatures, or not. “Natural” sounds like water don’t bother them, or not. Maybe a loud bang in an abandoned building causes an instant swarm within seconds, so it’s handy that the editors can mute the sounds of walking around on rubble and broken glass – this last bit being the most offensive. The movie is hilariously silent in regards to its characters, down to suppressing any kind of meows or purrs from Sam’s cat accompaniment. (Nico and Schnitzel – two cats credited as playing “Frodo,” are very cute, though.)

Even though this type of editing understandably took work, it feels like a lazy “solve,” and adds into the vibe that the death angels don’t matter at all; that this doesn’t need to be a Quiet Place movie in any way.

As with the franchise overall, the pitch for Day One has a lot of potential, but it feels like the movies have struggled to find a tonal balance after the first entry, with DO – while not without some highlights – sinks deeper into that trend.