A Quiet Place: Day One

 

Michael Sarnoski's A Quiet Place: Day One is more love story than alien-invasion origins picture.

It's not a conventional love story, by any means, but is romantic nonetheless, that is, between the attacks by the towering invaders who are blind but hunt prey through sound. Survivors quickly learn if they want to survive, they will remain silent.

Day One is also not a conventional origins picture. While it depicts the first wave of ravenous extraterrestrials landing in New York and decimating the population of that noisy city, the picture -- written by Sarnoski; John Krasinski who directed the first two installments and wrote the screenplays with Bryan Woods, who returns for Day One -- doesn't really tell us why this happened. Who did the Earth piss off? In that regard, it certainly isn't the only horror / sci-fi flick that doesn't describe the invaders' motives. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Lupita Nyong'o stars as Sam, a poet and last-stage cancer patient on an outing with other hospice patients when the leggy predators descend. She and her "service cat" survive multiple assaults and midway through the picture team up with British law school student Eric (Joseph Quinn).

Nothing lowers walls and defenses like a clear and present danger. Per force, Sam, imbittered by her disease, and Eric, who fights debilitating panic attacks, become a team, even though Sam is determined to walk uptown for a slice of pizza before the inevitable end. Evacuation boats are loading in the opposite direction.

It is this narrative twist that signals to Quiet Place fans, among whom I count myself, that this chapter is unlike the previous two, which starred Emily Blunt and John Krasinski and were about survival tactics and family bonds.

Day One is also about survival but I think more importantly it is about love of humanity and place. Sarnoski's final reel -- a rescue on the docks -- nailed this for me with a wonderful mix of terror and tenderness.