Prequel brings the noise to N.Y.C.

Placing the alien action in the bustling metropolis works brilliantly for the first 20 minutes

- PETER HOWELL

A Quiet Place: Day One 1/2 (out of 4) Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou. Written by Michael Sarnoski and John Krasinski. Directed by Michael Sarnoski. Opens Friday everywhere. 100 minutes.

Sci-fi prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” has no good reason for existing, apart from milking this franchise cash cow about sound-hunting space predators attacking Earth.

The first day of the alien invasion has already been amply illustrated in the flashback prologue to “A Quiet Place Part II,” in which people reacted to the spidery scourge from the skies the way they do in all three films: “Shut up and run for your life!”

But “Day One” writer-director Michael Sarnoski (who made the indie gem “Pig”) and his producers would argue the first two “A Quiet Place” films were set in a small rural town. It’s the one inhabited by the Abbotts, a family led by characters played by actor-director John Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, who aren’t part of this story. (Krasinski retains producing and co-writing credits.)

“Day One” is set in New York City, a metropolis accustomed to marauding monsters, as seen in “Cloverfield,” “Ghostbusters,” “King Kong,” a 1998 “Godzilla” reboot and innumerable other films. Surely there’s a terrifying story to be told as one of the world’s greatest — and noisiest — cities encounters aliens who lethally react to the slightest sound?