In her joyous song “It’s Oh So Quiet”, Icelandic singer Björk uses a hush tone when delivering her lyrics about living a peaceful life alone. Of course, life is unpredictable and sometimes love sneaks up on you, as announced by the big band style horns in the chorus that breaks the serene tone. Björk’s ode to love and connection comes to mind when observing Michael Sarnoski’s A Quiet Place: Day One, the latest instalment in the A Quiet Place blockbuster horror franchise.

While it is the unavoidable moment of noise, cutting through the silence like a dinner bell calling hungry aliens to the human buffet, that is the series’ tension filled calling card, it is the human element that resonates most.

In Sarnoski’s hands, taking over directing duties from John Krasinski, the potential ending of the world is not as important as the ones we chose to spend it with. This is something that Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill cancer patient living in a hospice, must come to terms with. Depressed and only seeing the limitations of her mortality, the once famed writer only has her cat Frodo, an emotional support animal, to keep her company.

Convinced by her care worker Reuben (Alex Wolff) to join a group of patients on a trip to Manhattan to see a puppet show, where they will get pizza afterwards, Samira decides to spend a rare day away from the sterile confines of the hospice. The trip to the city is cut short when alien creatures arrive with the intention of making unsuspecting New Yorkers the main item on their menu. Realizing quickly that these unwanted visitors are attracted to sound, and pinned down in the theater, Samira makes the bold decision that she is going to get her slice of pizza from Harlem even if it is the last thing she ever eats.

Making her way through the city, which looks like a dystopian warzone, Samira crosses path with Eric (Joseph Quinn), an English law student who is still in a state of shock. Brought together by fate, or at least Frodo, Samira is initially reluctant to let him tag along like a lost puppy. However, the pair soon begin to form a genuine friendship as they attempt to survive in one of the noisiest cities in America.

In setting the film in the city that never sleeps, A Quiet Place: Day One finds plenty of tension in things that city dwellers frequently take for granted. Sarnoski turns everything from entering an office building via the revolving doors to taking pills off the shelf at a pharmacy into a heighten sense of danger. Feeling more like an action movie than a horror at times, as the slightest sound causes hordes of aliens scurry from their hiding places like cockroaches fleeing a building being fumigated, it would have been easy for the film to simply rely on hunter prey tropes.

Similar to his previous film, the brilliant Pig, Sarnoski is more interested in the connections formed on the journey than the obstacles along the way. Samira is a woman who initially has resigned herself to her diagnosis, while Eric has been raised to believe that his life is to follow an expected path. However, as they learn about each other’s lives prior to the invasion, Sarnoski reinforces that even in the unpredictable adversities of life, no one needs to be facing the adversities alone.

Never getting overly sentimental in its messaging, there are times when the film flirts with the tropes that can lead one down the path of the magical negroes and white savoir respectively. Samira moves from a reluctant guide to someone who not only teaches Eric how to find his courage, but is willing to go to great lengths to ensure his safety. For his part, Eric teaches her how to reconnect with a world she long gave up on, while occasionally putting his life on the line in the process. While Sarnoski may step close to the cliff of these tropes, his film never falls over. Instead, he skillfully builds the bonds of friendship in a way that feels genuine.

Even the presence of Frodo, who is treated more like a guardian angel than a cat whose puts them in far more danger than they are willing to admit, manages to charm.

By time one reaches the end of the film, the fate of the world does not matter, the film is a prequel after all, as much as the bonds that have been formed in the chaos. A Quiet Place: Day One is an entertaining and surprisingly resonating work, a blockbuster that shows that even the unpredictable hurdles of life can he managed if you have someone to jump with you.