Film review: Shhhh… the novelty wore off in ‘A Quiet Place’ prequel

Not all successful films need to be franchises. Most really shouldn’t be. That’s not how Hollywood works, of course, but it’s worth repeating. Because in the case of “ A quiet place,” now his third film with a prequel about some new characters in New York on the first day of the invasion, the excitement of this new idea has died down. And when that happens, what are we left with?

There were certainly a lot of questions about how and why to kill monsters with hypersensitive hearing. The internet is full of logic questions and loopholes, if you’re curious. But the beauty of “A Quiet Place” was the silly mystery. We have just fallen into this apocalyptic world with a very simple but challenging rule: if you make noise, you die. I understood. The dearth of information worked to its advantage when we met this family who were just trying to survive (and quietly give birth to a baby!). Her sequel worked mainly because she intelligently chose to continue the same journey, picking up exactly where we left off.

“ A peaceful place: first day,” directed and co-written by Michael Sarnoski (sharing credit with John Krasinski), shifts the focus from the Abbott family to a new character, Sam ( Lupita Nyong’o ), who is dying of cancer. She is bitter, sarcastic and mean. And taking the “save the cat” idea to its literal extreme, Sam has a friend: a cat named Frodo. This feels like an unnecessary crutch, simply because if anyone is going to turn a hostile character into a compelling hero, it’s Nyong’o. Both she and Joseph Quinn, who plays a British law student named Eric, have deeply expressive, saucer-sized eyes that make dialogue almost unnecessary. But without a newborn in the mix, the cat adds an extra element of chaos by surviving for more than 3 minutes.

Sarnoski, who was behind the Nicolas Cage thriller “Pig,” makes the bold decision not to bother answering questions about the monsters. In fact, it barely addresses how everyone discovers they need to be quiet. One moment, people are being devoured on the streets of New York and several moments later there is a band of survivors putting their fingers to their lips. Perhaps this was clever: audiences tolerate to a certain extent watching characters perplexed by something they already know. But it might have been a little interesting to see someone figure it out, or try to persuade a child to believe it.

Aside from a disturbing attempt to connect this film to “Part II” through Djimon Hounsou, the story itself is largely contained to Sam and Eric, a stranger who sort of bonds with her and Frodo. She has one goal: survive long enough to get to her favorite pizzeria in Harlem.

There’s something compelling about the idea of ​​what a terminally ill person might do on the first day of the apocalypse, and Nyong’o is powerful and moving in this quest for the perfect slice. There is a beauty in the simplicity and insanity of it. What Eric is doing there, however, is anyone’s guess. It’s a little too underwritten to understand.

Furthermore, there are competing forces at play, with “Day One” wanting to be both a meditative character study and a thrilling horror film that gives us more monsters, more carnage, more scares and disturbing memories of 9/11. They never quite fit together, and several choices make it seem like the filmmakers were just trying to get carried away without much justification. One of the most moving sequences that captures the terror of Krasinski’s films is when Eric goes to a pharmacy to try to get medicine for Sam. It’s simple, efficient and full of dread and tension because it’s a necessary risk, unlike many larger set pieces that feel more tense.

Ultimately, “Day One” could have been set in any ancient apocalypse. Tying it to the rules of “A Quiet Place,” a clever premise whose novelty is impossible to recreate, much less world-build, only holds it back.

“A Quiet Place: Day One,” Paramount Pictures’ theatrical release on Friday, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “horror and violent content/bloody images.” Running time: 100 minutes. Two stars out of four.