Verdict: 3/5
‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is a strong film with moving themes but it has one problem: it’s just not scary enough.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a few good jump scares, but in some of the other scenes, where tension is supposed to be rife, I thought it felt flat.
As a prequel to one of the most intriguing monster movie series’ in the last five years, this movie had quite a bit to live up to.
The story follows Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a poet who is living in a palliative care facility in New York after being diagnosed with cancer; Sam’s cat Frodo; and Eric (Joseph Quinn), an English law student.
Sam, Frodo and some other care residents get taken into the city for a day out, but during their outing the monsters invade.
The initial invasion scene was a highlight for me – it effectively builds tension and makes the audience feel what the characters are experiencing.
These monsters are a little different though because they use sound to locate prey – everyone in New York now needs to be silent to survive.
This is an interesting concept and adds higher stakes into the survival of the characters.
Going into the movie I was originally worried about the safety of Frodo the cat, but once the movie was done I was only angry.
Can we finally move past the days where the characters don’t look after their animals correctly and they consistently run off? Once is fine, twice is pushing it but more than that? C’mon!
It moves from being a device to move the plot along to taking the audience out of the film because they are too busy rolling their eyes.
Ultimately, the movie was a swift 90 minutes with a focus on friendship and a few scary moments thrown in.
The action, acting and cinematography were all good but I wanted to be more scared.
See this film at Hoyts Penrith.
Emily Chate
Emily Chate joined The Western Weekender in 2024, and covers local news - primarily courts and politics. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, Emily has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and worked as a freelance journalist.