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Review – A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) Spoiler Free

Picture this: an ordinary day is thrown into pandemonium as gargantuan, near-indestructible creatures descend upon you, waiting to pounce at even the mere whisper of the slightest sound. This is the premise for the previous instalments within The Quiet Place franchise. Whilst this shuddersome concept is by far effective, the novelty of the series’ principles is not far from wearing thin; what else could possibly be thrown into the mix to prolong the film’s lore without becoming tedious? How many times can the same battle come forth? Director Michael Sarnoski might have the answer for that! 

A Quiet Place: Day One is a spin-off within the soon-to-be trilogy within the franchise, with the film focusing on a new set of characters in a setting we have yet to encounter. The film takes us on the terminally ill Sam’s (Lupita Nyong’o) journey across a wrecked New York City in the bid to survive. Joining Sam is Eric (Joseph Quinn), a British law student, and Sam’s cat, Frodo (panic aside, he survives the whole ordeal). 

As the title suggests, the film’s action begins on ‘day one’ of the eventual apocalypse, showcasing the city landscape in a ruckus as humanity grapples with the worst threat mankind has ever seen, whilst simultaneously having to remain as silent as possible to avoid triggering one of these audio-activated beasts. Consequently, the film wrestles with copious intense scenes showcasing Sam and Eric narrowly attempting to avoid making a peep. One brilliantly tense scene calls to mind where the survivors must dislodge a stuck briefcase from a revolving door without creating an almighty crash. These moments of pure muted silence, coupled with the threat of looming and dooming noise, have viewers sitting on the edge of their seats. 

Aside from the narrative structures, Nyong’o and Quinn’s standout performances make Day One’s appeal stand out. They create a powerful duo worthy of their own spin-off cinematic series when shown together. Nyong’o is no stranger to the horror genre with her roles in the Aussie zombie flick Little Monsters (2019) and Jordan Peele’s doppelganger nightmare Us (2019), both laying the grounds for her epic delivery of one of A Quiet Place’s most depthful characters yet. Nyong’o’s performance of Sam is praise-worthy, with her ability to navigate such fragility and horror simultaneously creating a character that is engaging and sensitive but strong enough for the audience to root for the entire time. Adjacent to Nyong’o’s leading portrayal is Quinn’s equally as emotively rich performance of Eric.

Similar to his co-star, Quinn’s talents in the likes of Overlord (2018) and the iconic role of Eddie in season 4 of the hit show Stranger Things (2016-) all set the stage for his appearance of the anxious law student Eric. Throughout the film, the pair of survivors form a unique bond that is empathetically dense as they band together to endure the end of the world, stirring that familiar sense of the emotional impact that has become synonymous with the Quiet Place world without becoming replicative of soap opera dramatics. 

All entries of A Quiet Place have faired well, particularly due to this mention of poignant emotional resonance. Whilst this expressiveness is a key value across the films, particularly Day One, many still value the films ability to raise the stakes and create moments of pure terror – think of the opening scene in the first entry or to be repetitive, the equally as intense opening scene in the sequel. As a horror contender, Day One is bountiful in its scenes of nail-bitingly tense creature sequences. 

Day One is a must-see, well-executed advancement into the mythology of the Quiet Place domain. The film expands our understanding of these creatures while still leaving that sense of disturbed wonderment that makes the sound-sensitive beasts so formidable.

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Top ten formidable extraterrestrial creatures

1- Thing – The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) 

‘Thing’: the detailed, unearthly, alien-like conundrum of a creature is not simply one of the horror genre’s most iconic beings, but one of cinema’s itself. Instantly recognisable and synonymous with John Carpenter’s grandiose auteurism is this hybrid, shapeshifting brute whose physical capacities include mutating into an array of phobia-inducing monsters including mutated huskies and gargantuan arachnids with talking heads (props to the Kafkaesque composition). The Thing’s stellar reputation is largely owed to special effects artist Rob Bottin who primarily conjured the horrid creatures throughout the entire film. It can confidently be stated that Bottin’s originality and sheer ingenuity have created the ultimate blueprint for movie monsters.

2- The Monsters – Feast (John Gulager, 2005) 

Whilst the Feast trilogy establishes that these apex predators are indeed deadly carnivores with an appetite for pure destruction to accompany their fleshy cravings, what is left undecided is their exact alien-like origin. However, forgoing whether they are innate earthly dwellers or not, what is noteworthy is how savage, beastly and ultimately gnarly these cosmic creatures truly are. Feast’s resident critters are responsible for some extremely gruesome antics such as eye gouging, head smashing, throat slashing and plenty of glimpses of archetypal sci-fi green goo and generous close-up shots of an array of slimy fluids. Further tearing into the response system of the viewer is the creature’s cruel, grotesquely evil actions that include assaulting their female victims in the most violent of manners. Feast certainly dares to shock the audience in every way possible.

3- The classic green Martian – Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

One particular scene in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs has garnered quite a reputation over the years, and for a very good reason as this single moment manages to conjure such a  spine-tingling, nail-biting, pure burst of alarming fright. Of course, the scene in question is the ‘birthday party scene’. Supporting lead, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) is shown watching the news, trying to seek out the strange alien happenings going on in the world. However, during the broadcast, a clip is aired of a birthday party that is suddenly interrupted by a gangly green alien striding across the screen. It’s a moment of such simplicity and plainness that somehow manages to reach out from the fictional world of Signs and physically affect the viewer. The graininess of the shot paired with the sudden startle aids in the ‘realness’ of that moment, giving a raw, realist agency to the scene that is usually difficult to achieve amongst all the fantasticality displayed within the sci-fi genre.

4- Jean Jacket – Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) 

Briefly steering away from the visceral excess of horror beasts is a slightly more subtle take on extraterrestrial life that still manages to dedicate its screentime to amplifying the fear factor. Nope’s antagonist is known as ‘Jean Jacket’, a colossal UFO that takes on the shape of a biblically accurate angel with its expanding, curtained edges that flutter during its consumption and round off afterwards revealing a design that can only be described as a smoothed cowboy hat… Specific descriptions aside, what allows Jean Jacket a spot on this list is its omnipotent vibe that exemplifies mystery to harbour intense fears of the unknown and the uncanny. However, amidst all of Jean Jacket’s subtle ways, what would be a dishonour to not give credit is that scene involving Jean practically inhaling a sea of people, inducing intense feelings of brutal claustrophobia that is sure to stay with the viewer for long after watching.

5- The Long One – Slither (James Gunn, 2006) 

Known as The Long One is Slither’s force of destruction. The Long One’s parasitic origins are responsible for its multitude of transfigurations across the film. Director James Gunn inventively displays these evolutions in the most absurd yet gorily creative ways possible. For instance, one of the more memorable parasitic forms exhibited in the film is when the leech-like creatures inhabit the body of Brenda (Brenda James), making her body expand into a mammoth fleshy sphere complete with protruding veins and puddled in a pit of merlot-tinted rot that emphasises the abnormally stretched beyond belief skin.

6- Xenomorph – Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) 

No extraterrestrial list would be complete without the undeniably infamous Alien. Ridley Scott’s 1979 tale on the powerful forces that exceed Earth is responsible for the one and only Xenomorph, an endoparasitoid species complete with a spiny tale, tubular skull and a hive mentality that makes for optimum domination over its prey. What makes the Xenomorph incredibly celebrated in the genre is its utter ruthlessness and its invasive potential. In the presence of Xenomorphs, no one is safe. 

7- Shapeshifting parasites – The Faculty (Robert Rodriguez, 1998) 

This late 1990s teen scream takes inspiration from the horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 [and its 1978 remake]) by placing the terror of the alien creature in its ability to shapeshift into a human, disguising and conniving before unleashing hell in its true form. Whilst The Faculty does an excellent job in the effects department when showing the creature in its full innate form, what remains the most foreboding aspect of the film is how these beasts transform into everyday people. It’s the fear of evil hiding where you’d least expect it, waiting and lurking in the shadows. 

8- Death Angels – A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018) 

Hyper-evolved beings that possess the power of super hearing to the point that a loud breath is perceived as a scream is an utterly terrifying premise. These creatures, officially known in their world as ‘Death Angels’ are horror reincarnated, prepared to rip you into a million tiny pieces within seconds – as wickedly revealed during the film’s bitterly harsh opening sequence. These immense monsters are entirely blind, solely relying on their hearing to catch prey. And as discovered in the film’s sequel (A Quiet Place Part II [2020]), the Death Angels managed to achieve world domination – apocalypse style – within hours. 

9- The ‘gorilla-wolf’ aliens – Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011) 

Described in the film as “big alien gorilla wolf motherf*****” are Attack the Block’s resident predators. This laugh-out-loud horror comedy may be equipped with a joke-a-minute coat, but underneath the humour are some pretty gruesome beasts that have the capability to instil enormous heaps of fright as the fuzzy, glowing creatures rapidly swarm down dark halls in their furry squads. 

10-  ‘PG’: Psycho Goreman – Psycho Goreman (Steven Kostanski, 2020) 

Psycho Goreman, also known as ‘PG’, is a self-proclaimed deadly, ferocious warrior who becomes trapped on planet Earth. PG’s death-lord ways see him destroy nearly everything in his path from murdering civilians to wrecking whole towns. However, PG does have an off-kilter charm that infuses the narrative and his persona with a warmth that can only be explained if one has seen the brilliantly wild and weird film itself. Throughout PG’s various rampages, his character becomes so emboldened with personality that it can be easy to overlook his barbarity. But one aspect that is impossible to escape is how exhaustively detailed the alien design is throughout the film. PG’s mottled skin with its constant crimson glow, coupled with a mountainous structure is a visual behemoth that both commands attention and adds to the horrifically majestical overarching tone of the entire film.

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Review: A Quiet Place Part II

aquietplacepart2

As I entered the cinema to watch the highly anticipated A Quiet Place Part II I was unfortunately met with loud chatty audience members attached to their brightly lit phone screens, needless to say, my annoyance was strong.

However, the conversations halted and popcorn crunching was paused within five minutes of the attention-demanding film’s commencement. And that’s when I knew that I was in for a good time. Taming the teen audience is a challenge, but there’s only one film for the job… 

A Quiet Place Part II begins with Lee Abbot (John Krasinski), walking across an eerily quiet town, are we pre or post-apocalyptic? Our questions are soon answered as we enter into the same pharmacy that featured in the first film’s opening scene and see Lee talk to the friendly shopkeeper whilst stomping around in loud boots. Soon after, the buzzing sound of kids shouting and baseball’s batting begins as he turns the corner, entering into a loud family baseball game where we see the loving Abbot family cheering on their son.

However, it’s not long until the real action begins as a beaming flame crashes through the sky and unleashes a hellish parade of sound sensitive beasts. The strong opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, which boasts constant “Dun..Dun..Dunnn…” moments. This relaying of intense scares and unpredictable character fates is truly unique to The Quiet Place films. 

A Quiet Place (2018) focused on the Abbot family, consisting of wife and husband, Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and Lee (Krasinski), and their two children Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and Marcus (Noah Jupe) as they attempt to survive in this dangerous world, all the whilst having to prepare for the arrival of Evelyn’s baby who is due any day now. Due to Regan being deaf the family is able to efficiently communicate via American Sign Language (ASL).

Similarly, Part II follows the family as they reach their next hurdle. After their home and supplies have burnt down they need to make it on barefoot, with a low oxygen tank and a new-born baby. Fortunately, it’s not long until they run into Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a recluse who is still grieving the loss of his family. The story soon evolves into a triple threat as Regan goes on a voyage in search of finding a survival community, with Emmett trying to bring her back to the family, whilst Evelyn, Marcus, and the baby hideout in a risky bunker. Throughout the entire film, these interwoven segments never become muddled and always manage to successfully reunite separate themes together. 

Simmonds is a pure powerhouse, with her emotionally strong and courageous performance of a determined young woman taking on Lee’s role of the brave patriarch of the family, making her one of recent horror’s most interesting characters. But, Regan shows a distinct strength of selflessness and bravery that is entirely her own, not just a shadow of Lee’s commitment. Her actions resolved my initial worries about this sequel.

When a film is so outstanding it can be difficult to meet the same level of effectiveness, let alone top it, and I believe that most of that previous impact blossomed from Evelyn and Lee’s portrayal of a tender couple trying to raise their family amongst the carnage. And with Lee now permanently absent, I was slightly apprehensive over the lack of sentiment that Part II would obviously have. Alternatively, Part II brings about an abundance of maternal care, with Evelyn giving it her all to save her children, and Regan and Emmett being one another’s grief support partner. 

It would be impossible to review Part II without acknowledging the primary characteristic that swaddles the entire film, the creatures. Their exposure is much more generous in Part II, as they make a plethora of appearances throughout the entire film. Now, one creature element that I really did appreciate is the correlation between threat levels and creature exhibition.

Typically, as most recently seen in It: Chapter Two, when we constantly see the villain on screen we lose the mystery appeal, and most significantly we tire of the exaggerated emergence of the antagonist. Krasinski carefully tiptoes across this thread by placing the beasts only at the climax of the scene, where we are already on edge. 

Preserving my intrigue was the lack of prototypical survivor algorithms. The banality of the norm is almost completely eradicated, the death of Lee wholly surprised me, and I was not let down by the similar risks taken in this sequel. The phrase ‘no one is safe’ truly comes to mind in reflection, not even the new-born infant is safe!

These bold screams are of course not entirely unheard of, but they are rare. However, as much as I’ve sold this as an adrenaline-pumping rollercoaster, I actually found that one of the most pivotal instances is the inclusion of Emmett, who wallows in dread and devastating loss. Emmett transitions through his character arc with ease, possibly cementing a continued role in the upcoming third film…


Although I am unable to favour one film more than the other, due to their innately alternative routes, I can promise that A Quiet Place Part II is a brave, captivating, and adrenaline pumping thrill into tragedy in the midst of chaos.

This weeks article comes via Grace from Film Overload, you can check out more of her work here.