The original A Quiet Place was one of the best movie experiences I have had in a theater. The tension in the theater, with everyone being just as quiet as the actors were on screen was an amazing atmosphere. It has not been rivaled in that manner since.

That does not mean that this new film, a prequel to that first film was not good. On the contrary, I found this new film, A Quiet Place: Day One, starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn was a very engaging and intense film.

A woman named Sam and her service cat Frodo found herself trapped in New York City on the first day of an alien invasion. The aliens responded and attacked with their amazing hearing forcing everyone to be as quiet as they could be.

I am reminded just what an exceptional actor Lupita Nyong’o is. Her portrayal of Sam was exceptional, displaying every bit of anxiety and stress with the most limited dialogue possible.

And early on during the film, I thought to myself, “If that cat dies, we riot.” Maybe that was an exaggeration, but the cat had some great moments in the film as well.

I did not realize that the other actor playing against Nyong’o was Joseph Quinn, who has been cast as the next Johnny Storm, the Human Torch in the upcoming MCU film Fantastic Four. I found this performance from Quinn as Eric to be very solid and working extremely well with the nearly silent Sam. Johnny Storm seems to be in capable hands with Quinn.

The film also had Djimon Hounsou as Henri, but he was not used to the level that one would expect. I wonder if this is intended to be the same character that he played in A Quiet Place Part II as IMDB only lists him as “Man on Island” in that film. Overall, Hounsou felt more wasted than anything else.

One of the few nitpicks that I had with this film was it sure seemed as if the whole ‘sound attracts these monsters and that you can avoid them if you are really quiet’ concept was figured out too quickly. I kept wondering how they figured that little tidbit out in such a rapid manner. It did not pull me out of the film, but I did think about it several times throughout.

The relationship between Sam and Eric was very original and strong, again because so much of their interactions came sans dialogue, I was connected to them, and it was not just because of the cat.

The sound design of this series of films has been sensational, and Day One joins in with them beautifully. The little sounds that were suddenly amazingly loud because of the way the aliens hear it was anxiety-creating and built amazing tension.

Of course, in the first couple of films, the focus was on a major character who was deaf. Here, Nyong’o had something else that I won’t spoil, but you learn about in the first ten minutes that really set the stakes for her character in an unexpected way.

Admittedly, the gimmick of the aliens who are attracted to sound has been played out a bit, but this film makes it work with the way it created a new group of characters and made us care for them. Then, by casting some excellent actors in the roles, you elevate what could have been just another monster movie into more than that, while still maintaining the aura of the original and sequel. I am not sure that I wanted another A Quiet Place movie, but I am glad that I got one.

4.2 stars