Emily Fritz |a&e editor |

In a movie market saturated with sequels, prequels, spin-offs and live-action adaptations, “A Quiet Place: Day One” (2024) brought a refreshing angle to the popular apocalyptic horror franchise.

Before its release, the premise follows a family bound to silence as the result of an aggressive alien species, known as Death Angels, which hunts its prey based purely by sound. Up until this point, the story takes place well into the thick of the action, few people remaining to creatively avoid gruesome death.

Unlike the first (2018) and second (2020) films, co-writer and director John Krasinski opted to step away from the prequel due to “creative differences,” according to Screen Rant.

Despite the change in direction, the newest installment takes place in an urban setting — New York City. In the opening wide shot, the film explains that “New York gives off an average of 90 decibels, which is the sound of a constant scream.”

Viewers are then introduced to a new set of characters. Sammy (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill hospice patient who is impatiently waiting to die, her cat Frodo and Eric (Joseph Quinn), an anxious and lonely law student, are grappling with the immediate aftermath of these creatures arriving on Earth.

As a trademark of the horror genre, the first two films were rich with suspense and gore.

“A Quiet Place: Day One” kept the same frightening excitement, but instead turned the story line on its head: Instead of finding new ways to last another day and narrowly avoid dismemberment, Sammy was able to use the world’s chaos to her advantage as she freely wandered the city and revisited the landmarks of her life before illness.

“Despite the creature’s presence, she is willing to adapt to this world as long as it means preserving her freedom,” wrote Movie Jawn editor Ryan Silberstein. “It is a film about mourning the way life used to be. While never invoking the pandemic (the series’ timeline would not allow it anyway), the film manages to be one of the most heartfelt and nuanced explorations on living through it.”

Among the scary movie junkies, a common discussion is ‘what would you do if…’

For those who consider life’s comforts to hold heavy weight on the quality of one’s life, these made-up scenarios don’t usually go well.

Speaking for myself, I know that a zombie apocalypse would not be survivable ­— looking after myself, let alone my loved ones, in a world where the odds are massively stacked against us is enough to fuel my nightmares for months.

“A Quiet Place: Day One,” however, inspires a weird sense of hope.

Audiences crave a story about the resilience of the human spirit. To what limits can we be stretched or beaten down before we finally cave to the ways of the world instead of working to solve for the world that we desire?

Sammy’s story of resilience in the face of her illness is hardly a fate that one could dream about, but reviving her sense of autonomy is a story worth witnessing.

Eric’s seclusion, which is broken only by the kindness of a stranger, is a universal tale that resonates beyond the limitations of the tired dystopian trope.

Even the desperate desire of the general public to outlast and escape is touched upon. During a mass evacuation, the collective noise launches a panic as the Death Angels descend.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of the film is Frodo the cat, who [SPOILER] survives the film.

Capturing new audiences through this flipped-script approach to a terrifying, twice-seen plot is a creative way to introduce the scared to the silver screen. For fans who have followed the trilogy in order of theatrical release, some recurring characters appear to tie back into the original story line.

Although the film hit theaters on June 28, its recent debut to streaming platforms on Aug. 27 and makes for a seasonally appropriate watch as the daylight wanes and Halloween approaches.