A Quiet Place choosing to board the “intimate horror of Alien to blast-em-up action of Aliens” pipeline robbed the franchise of its fear factor. Between the dual efforts directed by John Krasinski in 2018 and 2020, we’ve had far too much time to stare into those blooming onion mouths and eyeless, extraterrestrial features and realise the villains here are really just the demogorgons from Stranger Things if they’d been rendered by a Cubist. Thankfully, the third instalment of the franchise, and its first prequel, seems to know this.
A Quiet Place: Day One has embraced the idea of this series as the Takeshi’s Castle of being as silent as possible. It’s not scary anymore, but it’s stressful in the way that makes you dig your nails into your palm, as you watch a guy try to dislodge a briefcase from a pair of revolving doors without sending the whole thing clattering across the floor. A single noise, and he’ll be snatched away by aliens with as much sudden, unceremonious brutality as a belly flop into a swimming pool.
