10 movies like A Quiet Place: Day One to watch after the new prequel

Little Monsters (2019)

You’ve seen Lupita Nyong’o survive an alien invasion while protecting her cat, now watch her survive a zombie infestation, while protecting schoolchildren. In this case, however, she gets to kick undead booty.

In this hilarious Australian horror-comedy, Nyong’o plays Miss Audrey Caroline, a sweet-natured, flowery kindergarten teacher. On a field trip to a farm with her students, alongside Dave (Alexander England), a students' uncle acting as a chaperone to be near her (because who wouldn’t), There, they run into two surprises: popular children’s show idol Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad) and a nearby zombie outbreak. Using her killer instincts and good-willed teacher power to prevent traumatizing her tots, Caroline and Dave try to protect the youngsters from being zombie dinner and guide them all to safety. 

28 Days Later (2002)

Long before he became an Oscar-winner or A Quiet Place series alum, Cillian Murphy got his big break in Danny Boyle’s terrifying 2002 virus nightmare. Here, Murphy plays Jim, a London bike courier in a longtime coma who awakens in the hospital, finding himself alone with no one in sight for miles. He learns that a virus epidemic has occurred during his unconscious slumber, and zombies now are running rampant through the city.

Running, literally — these zombies are fast. While not quite as swift as A Quiet Place's alien "Death Angels," the 28 Days Later zombies are certainly as relentless.

Jim must find other survivors while avoiding the ravenous hordes — or even just one zippy zombie. With squirm-inducing blood and gore, Boyle’s first foray into horror realizes our deepest fears while telling a timely, humanistic tale of community even as civilization crumbles around them. 

Don’t Breathe (2016)

Don’t Breathe exchanges aliens for a blind old man with killer skills. Turning the tables on the home invasion subgenre, Fede Álvarez’s suspenseful 2016 R-rated thriller follows a group of petty thieves (Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto) trying to steal $300,000 cash stashed away in a vault in the house of blind war veteran Nordstrom (Stephen Lang). Once they make it in, they learn the hard way that he has keen sense of hearing, along with a criminal secret lurking below his basement. Utilizing stealth and silence for its single-set sequences, Don't Breathe is a great entry in the “keep quiet” horror canon.

War of the Worlds (2005)

John Krasinski and Tom Cruise: just two dads trying to do their best at the end of the world. Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster take on H. G. Wells’ iconic novel is an orgy of sci-fi spectacle. The close-encounter-of-the-invading-kind tale follows a divorced dockworker (Cruise) charged with watching his young daughter (Dakota Fanning) and estranged teen son Robbie (Justin Chatwin), but as alien machines land in his New Jersey town, they must fight to survive. The A Quiet Place franchise has traces of the 2005 popcorn blockbuster written all over it, from the widened scope of the latest installment and the complex family drama of the first two entries.

Cloverfield (2008)

Day One certainly isn’t the first time aliens invaded New York's five boroughs on screen. Matt Reeves’ terrifying found-footage creature feature from 2008 follows a group of friends whose going-away party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is disrupted by a monster crash landing in the heart of Manhattan. Once Rob realizes he might not see his love interest Beth (Odette Yustman) again, he and his pals travel through the crumbling city to reach her.

Like a Godzilla flick filmed through the lens of the millennials who watched too much of CW, Cloverfield restarted the new wave of found-footage phenomena. Amidst the shaky-cam footage and the scenes shot across the different NYC landscapes, Cloverfield, like Day One, has a strong heart; the characters are all fleshed out people trying to survive and hoping to make it out of the city together alive.

Bird Box (2018)

Whereas Oscar-winner Nyong’o tries not to trigger the killer aliens’ sense of sound in Day One, Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock tries not to trigger killer creatures' sense of sight in Netflix’s Bird Box. Arriving around the same time as the first A Quiet Place installment did in 2018, Netflix’s blockbuster follows Malorie Hayes (Bullock) as she tries to find refuge with her two kids, “Boy” and “Girl,” in a post-apocalyptic setting where invisible creatures hide in plain sight.

Unlike the Quiet Place franchise's aliens, these death angels lurk in the mist and don’t kill you themselves. Instead, if you see them, they invade your mind and force you to kill yourself. The best option left to humans is to blindfold themselves. At least the people in this world can talk. 

Scream VI (2023)

To continue the horror-in-NYC theme, the latest Scream series installment follows the Woodsboro survivors, sisters Tara (Jenna Ortega) and Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savory Brown), restarting life in the Big Apple; that is, until a new Ghostface (Roger L. Jackson) emerges and begins to hunt them down. Much like Day One, this sequel helmed by Radio Silence (Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) triumphs by utilizing every quintessential New York location — from a bodega to an apartment complex, and even a crowded train car — as a playground for an intense slasher set in America's most populated city. Being personally targeted by a mysterious Ghostface is, arguably, as nightmarish as audio-sensitive aliens invading the city.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Those mischievous Gremlins are the grandads of concrete-jungle horror. Joe Dante’s ridiculous and entertaining sequel to the 1984 classic centers on the adorable Mogwai Gizmo, who winds up in a high-rise, mixed-use Manhattan building. But as fate would have it, he's rescued by Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) and Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates), who also happen to work in the building.

In typical Gremlins fashion, Gizmo gets all wet and multiple gremlins spawn from him. But this time, all of them spout different attributes and abilities: bat-gremlin, brainy-gremlin, a girl gremlin, spider-gremlin — it never ends! As the titular "new batch" terrorizes the employees on its high-rise floors, Gizmo and his pals must destroy all the Gremlins and make sure none of them leaves the building, or it’s Manhattan for dinner.

Pig (2021)

Amid its terrifying action, Day One sneaks up on you with an emotional tale of grief slowly unraveled through Sam’s quest get a pizza in Harlem. This isn’t the first time writer-director Michael Sarnoski used food to deliver an emotional gut punch. His remarkable debut feature, Pig, is the perfect showcase for his writing prowess and an all-time great Nicolas Cage performance.

The drama follows a former chef, Robin Feld (Nicolas Cage) living in the Portland, Ore., woods with his adored truffle-finding pig. One night he’s attacked, and his precious pet is Pig-napped. To find him, he must trek to Portland with his ingredient supplier (Alex Wolff) and confront his dark culinary past to find his pig again. What unravels is an engrossing tale of grief, loss, and the food that transports us back to our happiest memories.

Us (2019)

Lupita Nyong’o has established her place as a horror icon, and no film proves that fact better than Jordan Peele’s Us. In one of the 21st century’s most terrifying flicks, Nyong’o shines in a frightening double role as both the scream-queen victim and the slasher villain.

Here, she plays Adelaide Wilson, a woman who travels back to her beachside childhood home with her family. Late at night, they are attacked by their evil backward-walking, raspy-voiced, animalistic doppelgängers called tethers and led by Red (Nyong’o). Nyong’o plays both sides classic horror performances; as Adelaide, she is frightened yet resilient (much like Sam in Day One). As Red, however, she screams menace and terror with precise and robotic body language. It’s a travesty that Nyong’o’s phenomenal performance was overlooked in that year’s Oscars.