A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) Review

I am not usually a huge fan of Horror films, but an exception are the two A Quiet Place films and now we have the prequel A Quiet Place: Day One, I managed to see it today and here is my review for the film. The premise of the film sees two people attempt to survive an alien invasion where they must be quiet in order to live. 

Main Character

Lupita Nyong'o plays Sam and I thought she was fantastic in this film. She absolutely nails this performance and is a fantastic protagonist that you want to support. Obviously, there isn't much dialogue here so she has to act through her body language and emotion and she totally nails it and hits the heights that Emily Blunt did in the other films. 

Supporting Characters

Joseph Quinn plays Eric and I really liked him in this film. He is a charming kind of nerdy character but he did a great job with it. The chemistry between him and Lupita was great here and I really liked how their characters progressed in this film and dealt with this situation that they are in, 

Alex Wolff plays Reuben and even though it is a smaller role he did a great job, the dialogue and witty banter between him and Lupita made it a great start to the film and did a really good job of establishing her character. 

Djimon Hounsou reprises his role from A Quiet Place Part 2 and he is really good when he is on screen. He doesn't do that much but I have to be honest I had forgotten he was even in a previous film in the franchise, once I remembered that his role actually works in this film. 

Before moving on though a big star of this film is the cat called Frodo. This cat is pretty adorable and a loyal companion to our protagonist, seeing the cat in danger made me really care about the film. 

Story

The story is decent, there is no doubt that the film really nails it with the dynamic between Sam & Eric and made you care about these people and hoping that they can escape this crazy situation. Also the ending of the film is handled really well and I am glad that they went the route that they did. Unfortunately, the film doesn't offer much new. With it being a prequel, I was hoping to learn more about these Aliens and there motivations or backstory but we get none of that and we just see these people try and escape, which we have already seen in previous films. 

Script

With the other A Quiet Place films, dialogue isn't very important but as this film takes place at the beginning of the invasion there is slightly more dialogue and it is really good. There is some on point humour which is then matched by some real emotion that made me care about the characters. 

Style

The film looks great and is shot fantastically. The tension is massive and I was at the edge of my seat for the majority of the film, waiting for someone to make a noise and draw the aliens in. The issue is with the pacing, the first act just didn't do that much for me and I think it overshows the Aliens and makes them feel less special. The 2nd and 3rd act are great, it is just the first act is a bit repetitive in its storytelling. 

Overall

Overall, A Quiet Place: Day One is a Great film that is worthy of being a part of this franchise. It doesn't revolutionise anything but it is a great watch and I think it is a film that everybody will like including people who aren't huge horror fans. 

Rating - 8/10