A Quiet Place: Day One Director Explains Collaborating With John Krasinski

A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski talked about his working relationship with John Krasinski. ComicBook had the good fortune of catching the filmmaker before A Quiet Place: Day One hits theaters today. During our chat, the director revealed that Krasinski really pushed for Sarnoski to try and make this entry in the franchise his own. Yes, there are still some rules that need to be adhered to. But, as a series progresses, there becomes a need to keep things fresh. 

“Yeah, I think it was just a lot of conversations. A lot of back and forth. He presented an idea of ‘Hey, we want to do a New York, Day One movie.’ And then, he really gave me the freedom to be like, ‘What does that mean for you? How could that be a Michael movie?’ He didn’t want to force me to try and emulate the past movies,” Sarnoski told us. “So, I just had to think about what kind of characters I wanted to explore. How I wanted to see this world. Then, we had a lot of back and forth about the little things we can do to sort of suggest things about the other movies. And, see some characters. But, it always had to feel in service to Sam’s journey and her core emotional story.”

The director credited Krasinski for being down to hand him the keys at such an important juncture. He continued, “So, I was just brainstorming and talking. Thankfully, he was very generaous and open with the idea of ‘make this yours and do what speaks to you.’

A Quiet Place: Day One Expands The Franchise

All this talk about Krasinski might make you wonder, is A Quiet Place: Day One as good as its predecessors? For ComicBook’s Kofi Outlaw, not really. Our critic was less than enamored with the personal drama at the heart of the prequel. Despite owning massive set pieces that dwarf stuff from the first two movies, he argues that A Quiet Place: Day One is worse for not leaning into the madness of the New York City setting a little more. The review even goes so far as to suggest that you’ll probably end up being more invested in the cat than anything else.

“A Quiet Place: Day One now attempts to move the franchise focus beyond the Abbott Family while advertising big reveals about the larger franchise storyline and the beginnings of the alien invasion of the “Death Angel” monsters,” Outlaw argues. “Unfortunately, the prequel’s biggest revelation is that this franchise is being approached as more of an anthology than as a shared universe of interconnected stories – and as a standalone chapter, it’s hard to see Day One as a compelling horror movie, rather than a well-acted character drama.” 

Are you down with more Quiet Place spinoffs? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!