On the surface, this prequel to surprise 2018 sci-fi smash A Quiet Place (and its sensational sequel A Quiet Place Part II) looks like a throwback to the good old days of the ‘80s blockbuster. Move the action to New York, boost the budget and super-size the alien threat, and everyone can have a yacht by Christmas. But we live in more straitened times, of course, and the result is – for better and worse – a smaller and more intimate prospect than its billing perhaps suggested.

The first two movies, helmed by John Krasinski, explored a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by sightless aliens with advanced hearing: one sound might cost you your life. Little-seen in the first movie, the enormous, fast-moving creatures resemble a scaly combination of xenomorphs and that minging spider thing from Silent Hill; not someone you’d want to bump into down a darkened alley, as they say. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance of that happening in A Quiet Place: Day One, given that the action takes us back to their crash-landing in Manhattan.

We’re in full Quiet Place reboot territory here. After much to-ing and fro-ing behind the scenes, relative newcomer Michael Sarnoski is now in the director’s chair, with the previous films’ Abbott family also eschewed in favour of Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a cancer-stricken woman with a compelling, finely drawn backstory. Along the way she meets Eric (Joseph Quinn), a British lawyer so reserved he keeps his tie on even as his suit becomes ever-more ruined in the carnage. Before long he looks like mid-’00s Pete Doherty at the end of a massive bender.

Also in the mix is Sam’s cat Frodo (ably portrayed by two felines called Schnitzel and Nico), who’s supposed to emotionally moor the film but seems more of a liability than anything. Nyong’o is magnificent – one moment of bug-eyed horror speaks volumes in a movie whose dialogue is naturally limited – while Quinn works hard to locate his poorly shaded character. Eric just sort of shows up and we’re supposed to care about him.