"A Quiet Place" was the movie that started me on the path to becoming a fan of horror movies. The franchise has been solid for the first two installments, and the idea of seeing what the initial invasion looked like was a huge reason for my interest in "A Quiet Place Day One."

As the title suggests, this occurs on the first day of the alien invasion. When aliens attack, Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) is on a group trip to New York City.

Here is my biggest gripe with the movie: It does not deliver on the promise of "Day One." The implication is that we will learn how society discovered that the aliens had sensitive hearing or could not swim. Instead, Sam is knocked out, and all that has already been figured out when she regains consciousness. It bummed me out that it didn't add anything to the overall world of "A Quiet Place."

That being said, I liked this movie. Sam is terminally ill and living in a hospice. She is in constant pain and on medication for it. When the world is ending, Sam's focus is getting a slice of pizza from a place she used to go to when she was a kid. Everyone else is trying to escape the city, but she is venturing deeper into it. She knows that, even if the aliens don't get her, the illness will, so she might as well get some pizza. That is what separates this from the other installments: Sam is not trying to survive. That is not a realistic goal for her. She is in pain and dying. When her pain medication runs out, her life is going to be miserable, so she's just trying to stay alive long enough to eat some pizza.

There is a thing on the internet where people describe the plot of a movie badly. As much as I enjoyed this movie, I could not help but wonder how it would look for this movie: a woman goes to get pizza. This is not as good as the first two movies in the franchise, but in the end, it has a different perspective and a story worth telling.

8/10

Rated PG-13 for terror and violent content/bloody images

1hr. 39min.