“A Quiet Place: Day One” is inherently redundant, but it is mostly competent enough to hold our attention at least. As the prequel to John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” (2018) and the following 2020 sequel, it does not have anything particularly new or fresh to surprise us, but it is supported well at least by the diligent efforts from its cast members, who try their best with their rather thin materials.

The opening part of the film, which is incidentally its best part, shows how things have not been that good for Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a young female poet who has been spending her remaining days at a hospice outside New York City due to her terminal illness. Although her counselor and fellow terminal patients sincerely try to support her, Samira cannot help but feel bitter and angry about her impending mortality and worsening illness, and she is not so eager when she is asked to attend a little theater performance to be held in the middle of the downtown area of New York City.

It is not long after Samira and others saw the performance that something suddenly goes terribly wrong in the city. As she struggles to grasp what the hell is going around her after a sudden big explosion occurs, the movie deliberately evokes the aura of fear and confusion reminiscent of the aftermath of the 9/11 incident, and then she sees people swiftly attacked and then killed by those hideous alien creatures introduced in “A Quiet Place”. They do not have eyes, but they can hear pretty well in addition to moving quite fast, and they are ready to go for anything making noise.

Fortunately, Samira manages to hide inside the theater where a number of other lucky people including her counselor are hiding, and she instantly gets the rule for survival: Never make any loud noise which can instantly attract the alien creatures. While she and others around her stick to this golden rule hour by hour, things get more despairing as the city is totally isolated from the outside as all the big bridges in the city are destroyed because the alien creatures happen to be unable to swim, and their only chance for survival is a nearby port where several ships are ready for them and many other survivors.

Like the main cast members of “A Quiet Place” and its 2020 sequels, the performers of “A Quiet Place: Day One” are required to convey a lot to us without much dialogue, and they did a good job of silently embodying their fear and anxiety. Lupita Nyong’o, who is no stranger to genre films as shown from her masterful duo performance in Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019), gradually establishes her character while looking believable in a series of suspenseful scenes in the film, and Djimon Hounsou, who previously appeared in the 2020 sequel film, and Alex Wolff are mostly solid although they are limited by their under-developed roles.

The screenplay by director/writer Michael Sarnoski, which was developed from the story written by him and Krasinski, trudges a bit during its middle part, but it patiently builds up more of the post-apocalyptic circumstance surrounding its heroine and several other characters. After becoming quite determined to do something personal before she eventually dies in one way or another, Samira embarks on a perilous journey for herself later in the story, and we observe more of the stark and barren background where the alien creatures can suddenly pop out for any unfortunate noise.

Not so surprisingly, the alien creatures are the weakest element in the story again. Although the movie attempts a bit to provide some biological details on these horrible creatures at one point, they are not particularly memorable in my humble opinion, and I must tell you that Samira’ pet cat has much more personality in comparison. While it does not seem to be particularly traumatized by what is going around it, this cute cat effortlessly steals the show as noiselessly following and comforting its owner, and we come to care about it as well as Samira. As reflecting more on their close emotional bond, I wonder whether the supporting character played by Joseph Quinn, who comes to accompany Samira just like her cat after getting some help from her, is actually necessary from the beginning.

The movie is the second feature film from Sarnoski, who previously impressed me and lot with his previous film “Pig” (2021). That movie looks simply conventional at first but then becomes quite sublime mainly thanks to Sarnoski’s thoughtful direction and one of the best performances in Nicolas Cage’s career. Compared to that, his second film is relatively more conventional without having much to distinguish itself from its predecessors, and that is two or three steps down from Sarnoski’s considerable achievement in “Pig”.

Nevertheless, “A Quiet Place: Day One” is not entirely without good things to enjoy even though it is not better than its two predecessors. I gave “A Quiet Place” 3.5 stars while handing 3 stars to its 2020 sequel, so I should give 2.5 or 3 stars to “a Quiet Place: Day One”. and I choose to rate it with 3 stars mainly because of another good performance from Nyong’o and that cute cat. Although she did not like cats much, she tried her best for interacting well with the cat on the set, and, what do you know, she eventually adapted it later. Regardless of whether you like the movie or not, we all can agree that is the best thing coming out of the movie, can’t we?