Clever, touching monster prequel has violence, jump-scares.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
a lot
Deaths. One character bashes a man's head, accidentally killing him, to stop him from panicking and making noise. Explosions, shattering glass, and lots of loud noise and a collapsing structure due to rampaging alien monsters. Characters are snatched away by the monsters in the blink of an eye. Character is knocked down by panicking mob and nearly trampled. A person is briefly trapped under a car, their foot pinned. Character thrown up against a building by a blast. Injuries. Dead bodies. Blood spatters on walls. Rat licks up a blood puddle. Monster threat. Jump-scares. Bridges blown up by missiles.
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Shows the value of effective compassion, courage, and teamwork. The movie is less about monster attacks than it is about human behavior.
Positive Role Models
some
Sam makes most of her choices based on the fact that she's dying, but she still chooses to help others and to work with Eric to succeed at their goal. Eric risks his life to get medicine for Sam, and Sam risks her life to escort Eric to safety.
Diverse Representations
some
Main character Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) is a Black woman with agency. She's dying of cancer but is determined to achieve her dying wish: pizza. She's paired with a White man named Eric (Joseph Quinn). The only other characters who appear for any length of time are a White male nurse, Reuben (Alex Wolff), and Henri (Beninese-born actor Djimon Hounsou), who goes on to become the leader of the survivors.
Parents need to know that A Quiet Place: Day One is a well-crafted prequel to the sci-fi/horror monster movies A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II. It introduces two new main characters -- Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) and Eric (Joseph Quinn) -- and takes place at the onset of the aliens' invasion. Violence includes monster attacks, deaths, explosions, noise and collapsing structures, characters being snatched by the monsters, a character caught up in a chaotic mob, threats, injuries, dead bodies, blood splatters on walls, jump-scares, and more. One character bashes a man's head, accidentally killing him, to stop him from panicking and making noise. There are several uses of "s--t" (mostly all at once), as well as one use of "f--k." Characters share a tumbler of whiskey in an abandoned bar, and the main character requires prescription meds for cancer-related pain. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
I watched this movie tonight with my whole family, and even my easily skittish grandmother liked it. I’d label it as a thriller, though that didn’t appear to be its main purpose. more so, it’s an emotional, bittersweet movie, that will likely bring up some feelings in you. it’s sweet, sorrowful, Intense, melodramatic, but can also leave you with a strange sense of peace. it’s a beautiful movie, with a beautiful, genuine, caring, loyal relationship between the main characters. how they survive and depend on eachother is a sight to behold. i wouldn’t say it’s gory, and it’s not so high on the scary scale, but there are a few jump scares, I suppose. I think it depends on your child whether they can watch this. if they watched the originals, or any other horror/thriller, this is definitely on the lower side so they’ll be fine. I think 8,9 are probably solid ages.
Not as good as the first few, but still good enough.
This movie was not as good as the other quiet place movies, but was still worth watching imo.
There is about the same amount of violence that there was in the first quiet place movies. If you’re okay with alien-human violence with nothing too obscenely gory then you’ll be fine with this movie. It is very slow moving like the others, which adds to the scare factor when aliens do jump out. There is a cat who is frequently in danger. If you are like me and want a heads up to whether the cat survives just google it before watching.
What's the Story?
In A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, Samira, aka "Sam" (Lupita Nyong'o), is in a hospice care center, having been diagnosed with cancer. Her nurse, Reuben (Alex Wolff), convinces her to go to New York City to see a show, and she agrees, on the condition that they stop for pizza. She gathers up her cat, Frodo, and boards the bus. But the trip is cut short by some kind of occurrence. Before long, strange objects begin falling from the sky, and alien monsters start attacking anything that makes noise. Sam manages to survive the initial onslaught, but after another monster encounter, she decides that she wants to go to Harlem to have one last slice of pizza from Patsy's. On the way, she meets Eric (Joseph Quinn), an Englishman who came to New York to study law and knows no one. Sam reluctantly lets him tag along with her. Slowly they learn to take care of each other and decide that they won't give up until they get that pizza.
It could have been a cheap cash-in that killed the mystery of the creepy sound-seeking monsters, but this prequel is instead a surprisingly riveting, intricately designed, even touching adventure. Directed by Michael Sarnoski as a follow-up to his excellent debut feature Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One begins by offering the factoid that New York City regularly generates 90 decibels of noise, the equivalent of a human scream. The movie then proceeds to use sound in a most intriguing way (as did the previous two Quiet Place movies). In one scene, the characters find themselves under a scaffolding in a rainstorm; the hammering sound of water on metal gives them enough cover to be able to whisper and introduce themselves. And a use of music in a later scene provides an emotional jolt that will be hard to forget.
In truth, the whole concept inspires the filmmakers to find ways to tell the story visually, without relying on talking; viewers are invited into the tale, rather than being told what to think. New characters Sam and Eric are surprisingly sympathetic and endearing: Sam is hard-headed and tragic, and Eric is tender and lost, like a puppy dog. He demonstrates several acts of bravery to show his loyalty. The supporting character of Henri (Djimon Hounsou), who becomes a major player in A Quiet Place Part II, is introduced here in a respectful and unobtrusive way. But best of all is that A Quiet Place: Day One didn't use its prequel position to explain the monsters' origin. Their real power lies in their mystery, and the movie keeps that intact, making this a worthy addition to a strong, scary series.
MPAA explanation:
terror and violent content/bloody images
Last updated:
August 23, 2024
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By Jeffrey M. Anderson
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