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<\/a><\/div>\nThere was a lot of groundwork laid in the first two films in A Quiet Place<\/i> series but aside from flashbacks we never properly saw the day that the aliens came to Earth, crashlanding in New York and causing havoc. Naturally as all franchises must we get a flashback prequel that showcases ground zero of these horrific events, taking the premise of an alien that is blind, but hunts by sound, and decimates humanity one by one in quick succession with terrifying speed. Caught in the middle is Sam, played by Lupita Nyong\u2019o, a woman on borrowed time struggling to find the will to live before the world is over. And what happens to Sam then \u2013 when the world actually ends? She has a therapy cat to look after, but beyond that \u2013 nothing and nobody. She\u2019s alone.\n<\/p>\n Michael Sarnoski steps up to the template of big budget horror after handling the Nicholas Cage drama Pig<\/i> with confidence needed to deliver; but fails to make this film feel terrifying. We know all the tricks of the monsters now and we are ahead of the characters. The mystery isn\u2019t there. The suspense, the fear isn\u2019t there \u2013 it\u2019s not really a horror story but a bombastic disaster epic akin to The Day After Tomorrow<\/i> or something on a grander scale like Spielberg’s War of the Worlds<\/i>; removed from the quieter more remote focus of the tenseness of the first two films of A Quiet Place<\/i>, which drew more from The Last of Us<\/i> in inspiration. Here it’s a-to-b disaster after disaster with a firm emphasis on the human characters; but the real star is Nyong\u2019o\u2019s Sam \u2013 the actresses\u2019 acting ability with her eyes alone is fantastic and able to convey fear that next to her, Joseph Quinn feels as bland as his character, from Kent, England \u2013 because nobody would know where Kent is otherwise \u2013 and it feels like such an odd choice for him to come from.\n<\/p>\n Not enough depth is given to Quinn\u2019s Eric and the bond between Sam and Eric feels stiff, forced and awkward. Their mission to get pizza at the end of the world unconvincing and corny; even if it means everything to Sam. That said \u2013 it\u2019s refreshing to get a story like this where the characters accept that they\u2019re doomed, and I think I would be too in this universe, there\u2019s no point in carrying on, removed from all sound, it\u2019s just a shame the monster cliches are all over this film it feels like what would happen if you mashed all the classics into one film and spat them out again. And the cat; whilst amazing, of course it\u2019s a cat, became the centre of one too many narrative structures to take your attention away from everything else \u2013 and what\u2019s perhaps A Quiet Place: Day One<\/i>\u2019s most indicative point is that the cat is the most interesting character of them all. There\u2019s no contest. Eric treats Sam as a mother figure rather than a partner; a different change of dynamic given how helpless he is \u2013 but the film can never bring you to care about either of them.\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n