“A Quiet Place,” now on its third movie with a prequel about a few new characters in New York on the first day of the invasion, the thrill of that fresh idea has waned. And when that happens, what are we left with?
Not all successful movies need to be franchises. Most really shouldn’t be. That’s not how Hollywood works, of course, but it’s worth repeating. Because in the case of “ A Quiet Place,” now on its third movie with a prequel about a few new characters in New York on the first day of the invasion, the thrill of that fresh idea has waned. And when that happens, what are we left with?
There were certainly many questions about the how and the why of the killing monsters with hypersensitive hearing. The internet is full of logic questions and holes if you’re curious. But the beauty of “A Quiet Place” was the silly mystery. We were just dropped into this apocalyptic world with a very simple but challenging rule: If you make a noise, you die. Got it. Scarcity of information worked in its favor as we got to know this family just trying to survive (and deliver a baby quietly!) Its sequel worked mostly because it smartly chose to continue that same journey, picking up exactly where we had left off.
“ A Quiet Place: Day One,” directed and co-written by Michael Sarnoski (sharing a credit with John Krasinski), shifts focus from the Abbott family to a new character, Sam ( Lupita Nyong’o ), who is dying of cancer.
