One of the most surprising franchises in recent years, A Quiet Place: Day One brings the franchise back to theaters. The third film inside a decade, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and now Lupita N’yongo, has proven it’s got staying power. There’s a lot to like about the franchise, so much so that a few similar movies and shows have reached for similar material. A few of these movies existed or were in production alongside A Quiet Place. Yet their similarity speaks to Hollywood’s never-ending willingness to push out movies with similar themes and ideas simultaneously.
The Silence (2019)
Unfortunately for The Silence, the Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka starring movie forces its audience to imagine a world where sound attracts monsters. The Silence was in production during the same time as A Quiet Place, which is an unhappy coincidence. However, The Silence also loses points for poor execution of interesting ideas.
There are some very upsetting images throughout the movie, including Tucci essentially killing his dog and a woman being forced to fight monsters while trying to shield a baby (we cut away before the implied results). Yet The Silence features questionable effects and, halfway through, introduces a cult that literally uses cell phones as a “suicide bomb” so they can reproduce with Shipka. The odd choices doom this one.
Arcadian (2024)
Nicolas Cage versus the Apocalypse will always be something we’ll want to check out. Nicolas Cage versus some creepy monsters only raises the stakes. 2024’s most recent addition to the unofficial “A Quiet Place canon” forces families to hide in their houses when the Sun goes down. It’s got some very cool creature design, but the cool idea loses some of its steam midway through. The effects cannot quite hold up in the second half, but Arcadian makes for a fun time when it’s hitting its notes.
Bird Box: Barcelona (2023)
The narrative shift in Bird Box: Barcelona was a welcomed change to the post-apocalyptic formula. While it did not return Sandra Bullock, the shift in location made this impossible. Despite losing that wattage, many moments in Bird Box: Barcelona are far more entertaining than others on this list. To its benefit, some of the sequences are simply astounding (specifically the “Day 1” of the event and the early warehouse bus crash). However, despite some good performances, its cast does not have a performance that measures up to the heights of the others on the list. Bird Box: Barcelona rises far above most disaster movie sequels but still lands in the middle of our list here.
Bird Box (2018)
Coming months after A Quiet Place never felt like it diminished Susanne Bier’s work. Sandra Bullock and Trevante Rhodes develop excellent chemistry, and their relationship drives much of Bird Box‘s success. Both have always been talented, and it was great to see Rhodes show he could stand toe-to-toe with another great performer. It’s Bullock’s movie. They stand out above the overall ensemble, which has some brilliant names with some pretty small parts. Bier makes Bird Box look the best of any of the movies on this list, and there’s a reason it spawned memes and a sequel within a matter of years.
A Quiet Place (2018)
The event that kicked off the trend remains one of the very best films of 2018. John Krasinski delivers his career-best performance, and Blunt’s outstanding performance has since become legendary. She even won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress. While John Krasinski and Emily Blunt made for a brilliant duo at the top of the film, Krasinski’s direction sealed the deal. The sound work and incredible emotion woven throughout the film make A Quiet Place a special movie.
It’s also a masterclass in tension, and when the audience bought into the pitch, there were few better theater experiences in the 2010s. However, the screenplay stands out as the weakest in the trilogy, and too many of its moments feel great as storyboards but are unearned in the narrative. The opening scene feels too contrived, especially with how the pre-title card sequence ends. It drops in comparison to the other two A Quiet Place movies for that alone.
A Quiet Place Part II (2021)
The 2020 sequel to A Quiet Place got delayed into 2022 due to COVID-19, but its effectiveness never waned. The Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy showcase became a night precursor for Oppenheimer, allowing each of the actors to dig into the emotion a series of events like this would cause. A stellar performance from Millicent Simmonds allows the movie to take another leap forward. It’s a richer movie on that front and holds up better on a rewatch than the first movie. However, the finale also feels frustratingly convenient, specifically for the Simmonds/Murphy aspect.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Perhaps the biggest surprise of A Quiet Place: Day One is how good it turned out. With expectations starting to wane, it would be easy to dismiss this as “just another Quiet Place movie.” However, it does not take long for us to see new aspects of the story take hold. First, Lupita Nyong’o borders on having the best performance in the franchise. There may not be an actor alive better at contorting her face and creating character beats in silence.
Second, director Michael Sarnoski once again showcases his ability to milk emotion from his screenplays. He finds ways to make the common pieces of life seem profound and relatable, even getting a slice of pizza or watching a marionette show.
Finally, the framing of the Apocalypse through the eyes of someone dying should not work. We know that death is coming, and thus, sacrifices or decisions should not matter as much to the audiences. However, because of the performances of Nyong’o & Joseph Quinn, Sarnoski builds power out of the moments they spend together. Even if melancholy and doom hang over them, there are hope and achievable goals that we relate to. With the strongest screenplay, very cool Aliens-style visuals, and the ability to filter between thunderous and quiet sequences, A Quiet Place: Day One rises to the top of the crowd.
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