A Quiet Place: Day One Parent Guide

Although she’s young, Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) knows she’s going to die, and fairly soon at that. The difference between her and most of the rest of the world is that Sam has faced her mortality for years, and the terminal condition with which she was diagnosed has its own timetable.

The rest of the world found out they were going to die on a characteristically chaotic New York afternoon when the planet was overrun by terrifying, murderous aliens. Sam, already fairly accepting of her impending death, isn’t ready to give up just yet. She doesn’t have any big plans to kill the aliens or save the planet; she just wants to finish her bucket list - a last slice of pizza from a childhood spot in Harlem. With her are her service cat, Frodo, and Eric (Joseph Quinn) a nervous British legal student who she fished out of a flooded subway and who insists on following her around.

After a run of big-budget box-office underperformers (Mad Max: Furiosa and Fall Guy spring to mind), A Quiet Place: Day One one might be able to buck the trend. Based on my sample size of a single sold-out theater on a Thursday night, it looks like this soft-spoken horror flick could actually make some money in this economy. And, more shockingly, it kind of deserves it.

An excellent performance from Lupita Nyong’o anchors the film through a few fits and starts, but there really are only a few. I was cynical going into the theater, but as the film went on, I found myself somewhat charmed by the simple story underlying the whole alien invasion plot – although, truth be told, sometimes the alien invasion feels more like the subplot. I really appreciate that. It leaves more room for the characters to develop and act, instead of just ping-ponging them from one CGI crisis to another. Most apocalyptic movies are so busy fretting over the specific details of the end of the world that they overlook the one thing that matters: how people deal with it.

This film will never be a strong contender for “Children’s Film of the Year”, but the content concerns are remarkably mild for a horror flick, even one that comes in at PG-13. There are eight scatological curses, some social drinking, and a little bit of violence. Mostly, people just get politely yoinked off-screen by the creatures to be killed away from the prying eyes of the audience, and some dead bodies are seen littered about. Adults, teens, and genre fans alike will probably find something worthwhile in this familiar but compelling look at how humanity finally finds its collective indoor voice.