The hideous novelty is leaking a little from what now has to be called the Quiet Place franchise, about humans of the future forced to live in a permanent state of tremblingly paranoid silence because they are terrorised by alien monsters who can’t see but will pounce at the slightest sound. This prequel, directed by Michael Sarnoski (
the creator of Pig, starring Nicolas Cage) shows two strangers finding a connection on the very first day of the aliens’ attack; it is well made and well acted, with a fervent lead performance from Lupita Nyong’o.
Nyong’o plays Sam, a woman with cancer in hospice care, who is spiky and difficult with her nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff). When longsuffering Reuben takes Sam and other patients for a trip into New York for a treat (oddly, a marionette show – but with very few kids in the audience), the creepy, blind creatures attack. They cause apocalyptic chaos, and Sam finds herself randomly befriending a terrified British law student called Eric, played by the estimable Joseph Quinn, who gave such an intense performance in Luna Carmoon’s psychodrama Hoard.