A Quiet Place: Day One
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 28, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
41
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
IGNEric GoldmanJun 27, 2024
The opposite of the soulless franchise extension it could've been, A Quiet Place: Day One delivers a prequel that elevates the series to new heights. Read full review
88
Washington PostAmy NicholsonJun 28, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One, the startlingly effective prequel to the 2018 blockbuster about noise-sensitive aliens that devour anyone who’s ever annoyed a librarian, hits Manhattan with a bang, a nasty body count and a fair amount of audience suspicion. Read full review
85
PolygonSiddhant AdlakhaJun 27, 2024
It’s likely the best Manhattan mayhem film since Cloverfield, and it’s also a downright excellent Hollywood blockbuster, if an entirely unexpected one. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJun 27, 2024
Nyong’o, a prestige actress who moonlights as the world’s most expressive scream queen, does wonders with the nuances of Sam’s sorrow, the tug of war between acceptance and fighting for her life. Read full review
83
Original-CinJohn KirkJun 27, 2024
What the film does well though is deliver a precisely balanced combination of jump scares, intense situations and confrontations with truly horrible creatures. It’s an effectively scary story, and it’s through the silence of the audience that you can measure this film’s success. Punctuated by some powerful emotional delivery, the audience is able to connect with characters meaningfully, distracting them from convenient story factors and encouraging willing disbelief. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJun 27, 2024
Sarnoski is working on an auteur wavelength. He often lets the momentum stagnate just enough so the viewer can truly take in the staggering annihilation of a city now in ruins, full of death, and inherent quiet beauty. None of this would come close to fruition, however, without Nyong’o and Quinn’s stirring performances. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJordan HoffmanJun 27, 2024
As with the others in the series, this is not an upbeat picture, but it is effective and unsettling without being too gory. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 30, 2024
This is a stylish and satisfying prequel that elegantly integrates Sam’s poet’s sensibility into the storytelling. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJoshua RothkopfJun 29, 2024
This is a film that seems to know a lot about future psychology. May we never know such mournfulness outside of an ambitious summer blockbuster. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJun 27, 2024
If a thriller can make you hold your breath for fear of being eaten by aliens while you’re sitting in the multiplex, it’s working pretty well, and “A Quiet Place: Day One” appropriately kept me in a frozen state, afraid to so much as crinkle a page in my notebook. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredMarco Vito OddoJun 27, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One is a gripping prequel that balances emotional depth with thrilling suspense. Lupita Nyong'o's standout performance and the film's fresh take on the franchise make it a must-watch, despite some predictable plot points. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJun 27, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One can’t boast the freshness of concept of the first film, but, in pure emotional payoff, it’s the most satisfying of the series. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJun 27, 2024
The set pieces are well handled, but this prequel stands out most for its commitment to fleshy humanity. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJun 27, 2024
As before, the act of watching with an audience is part of the fun, with each pin-drop-silent sequence playing as a challenge to viewers to maintain their collective hush at all costs. This is the pleasant surprise of the summer so far. See it. Don’t bring crisps. Read full review
80
EmpireBen TravisJun 27, 2024
A solid A Quiet Place entry is elevated by Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn’s affecting performances — a surprisingly tender tale of the end of days. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 27, 2024
The sophomore writer-director adapts to the requirements of the genre, expertly sustaining tension, peppering big scares throughout and earning our emotional investment in the key characters. Plus a cat. Read full review
80
NMEJordan BassettJun 27, 2024
Sarnoski has crafted a tonally cohesive but low-key drama that happens to be interspersed with moments of white-knuckle terror. Appropriately enough, A Quiet Place: Day One is more of an urgent whisper than a shout. Read full review
80
Total FilmAnna SmithJun 27, 2024
While it shares plenty of DNA with the first two films, it has its own distinct character. It's a compelling and moving watch. Read full review
80
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaJun 27, 2024
Against all odds, this is the best movie in the series. How wonderful it is to be surprised. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 28, 2024
This works effectively as a stand-alone film and part of a larger story, and finds a way to extend the Quiet Place concept without feeling redundant. Read full review
75
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJun 27, 2024
How refreshingly nice it is to watch a summertime movie that lets us sit in our feelings and grim recollections this way, and figures that an adventure in its own right. Read full review
75
ObserverDylan RothJun 27, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One is a surprisingly tender and moving film that uses the franchise’s alien apocalypse to tell its own, very different story. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 27, 2024
Even if you’re never seen the first two “A Quiet Place” films (though we highly recommend that you do), “Day One” writer-director Michael Samoski, working from a story he conceived with John Krasinski, delivers a compelling and at time surprisingly poetic and melancholy survival story, with the brilliant Lupita Nyong’o carrying the film every quiet step of the way. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJustin ClarkJun 27, 2024
Like most of this series’s best action, the big bombastic noise is often a distraction from something far more intimate, and in Day One’s case, something far more existentially beautiful. Read full review
75
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJun 27, 2024
Courtesy of an intense lead performance from Lupita Nyong’o, it packs a moderate silent-but-deadly punch. Read full review
75
IndieWireKate ErblandJun 27, 2024
The filmmaker manages to bring much of his sensibility and overall texture to the series. Part of that is due to the nature of the prequel itself (go back to where it all began!), part of that is due to the relative freedom to build in new characters and stories, but much of it is thanks to Sarnoski’s ability to pull deep emotionality out of his stars and audience almost immediately. Read full review
74
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 27, 2024
Not much of Sam and Eric’s journey is all that compelling, or even makes sense . . . but at least they’re nudged along by Sam’s emotional support cat, easily the cutest MVP (Most Valuable Pet) since Messi the dog from last year’s Anatomy of a Fall. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryJun 27, 2024
The latest film begins from a slightly unexpected premise, but then efficiently spins it to yield additional horror while giving theater-goers every reason to keep their mouths shut. Read full review
70
ColliderEmma KielyJun 27, 2024
Led by brilliant performances all around with a simple but effective story, A Quiet Place: Day One may not be the most horrifying alien film, but it stands apart from its predecessors while staying true to why so many people love this franchise. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearJun 27, 2024
You can’t accuse Day One of playing its safe by regurgitating the same ol’ shocks and ahhs. And while it may not fully satisfy that primal urge that drives us to summer movies in the first place, it’s still breathes fresh air into a series in danger of becoming rote and stale. Read full review
70
The New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliJun 27, 2024
It is at its very best whenever Nyong’o’s face fills the screen, like the postapocalyptic heroine of a silent movie. What she can do with relatively little is simply astonishing, and you absolutely believe in both Samira’s despair and her determination. Nyong’o has created a woman whose life force can never be fully extinguished. Read full review
70
Little White LiesHannah StrongJun 27, 2024
It’s a film about the necessity of holding onto small, precious things in the face of all-consuming fear. Whether that’s an authentic New York slice or your beloved, curiously bombproof cat. Read full review
70
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJun 27, 2024
The best that can be said for 'Day One' is that if this is your first A Quiet Place, you’ll probably get swept up in it, and want to watch the other two. Read full review
70
LooperReuben BaronJun 27, 2024
As a whole, "Day One" is different enough from its predecessors while meeting similarly high marks of filmmaking craft, resulting in a solid piece of popcorn filmmaking. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonJun 27, 2024
Day One never reaches the inspired heights of what came before, but Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn are compelling as strangers forced to work together in a devastated New York. Read full review
67
The Film StageJordan RaupJun 27, 2024
He escapes the confines of being just a hired gun, but in the case of A Quiet Place: Day One, Sarnoski’s tender, apocalyptic character drama keeps getting interrupted by a bunch of pesky aliens. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJul 10, 2024
There’s a vulnerability to A Quiet Place: Day One that’s rare in big, would-be blockbusters. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 30, 2024
Nyong’o, Hounsou, Quinn and Wolff win our pity, our empathy and our respect as these New Yorkers face their fates at the beginning of a global nightmare which no one can see through, see past or realistically expect to survive. They make “Day One” both engrossing, and a great argument for why this “franchise” has said what it has to say and thus is ready to take its final bow. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 27, 2024
If it has the edge over the 2018 and 2020 movies, the reason is simple though her talent certainly isn’t: Lupita Nyong’o. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeNatalia WinkelmanJun 27, 2024
The film includes the standard escalating horror set pieces — one occurs on fiery scaffolding, another inside a different flooded subway — that grow repetitive in their oscillating bouts of tension and release. But Nyong’o and Quinn manage to keep the film anchored in connection. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJun 27, 2024
There are enough interesting ideas and at least two confident performances holding A Quiet Place: Day One together, even if it sometimes feels like a first draft of a richer, more complex final film. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)A.A. DowdJun 28, 2024
The don’t-speak values of the series, faithfully preserved by Sarnoski and beautifully expressed by Nyong’o, are still welcome in a Hollywood landscape that would prefer to drown audiences in sound. But if you repeat it enough, a bold new approach to multiplex thrills becomes just more noise. Read full review
60
Time OutIan FreerJun 27, 2024
Super skilled and eminently likeable, Nyong’o is a saving grace in the eye of the storm. Read full review
60
BBCCaryn JamesJun 27, 2024
As an emotional journey Day One has its moments. For a supposedly scary movie, it's a little bit sloppy. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 27, 2024
It is well made and well acted, with a fervent lead performance from Lupita Nyong’o. Read full review
55
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJun 27, 2024
The pleasurable jolt of a silent scare has given way to predictability. Read full review
50
Film ThreatAlan NgJun 28, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One failed to capture what we loved about the original films and instead decided to focus too much of its time on a rollercoaster ride of an alien invasion. Fun is fun, but without proper character development, Day One is more fast food than a hardy meal. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJun 27, 2024
Ultimately “Day One” could have been set around any old apocalypse. Tethering it to the rules of “A Quiet Place,” a smart premise whose novelty is impossible to recreate let alone build a world upon, just holds it back. Read full review
46
Paste MagazineHafsah Abbasi Jul 1, 2024
The premise of Michael Sarnoski’s Day One hints at a more filled-in world, but plays more like a maudlin, shallow commercial for the franchise, aided by an overused, cloying score and simplistic, navel-gazing character arcs. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 27, 2024
“Day One” ought to have been the mind-blowing origin story, and instead it’s a Hallmark movie, where everyone seems to have nine lives — not just that darn cat. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJun 27, 2024
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t invest in its characters or in its world beyond the surface, so why should we? Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 27, 2024
Nyong’o’s prodigious talents are sadly wasted in this noisy, pointless movie, which never approaches the cleverness — or the genuine scariness — of the first two in the franchise. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJun 28, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One is about a cancer patient in hospice who hopes to die with dignity. Also, there are terrible monsters threatening humanity. What an odd idea for a horror prequel. Read full review
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