A Quiet Place Part II, writer-director-star John Krasinski’s sequel to his popular 2018 horror-thriller, premiered in New York in March 2020 but saw its release delayed for more than a year when the coronavirus pandemic broke out days later and cinemas were shuttered worldwide.
Opening wide across cinemas in the United States last weekend to box office numbers that many are touting as a return to normalcy at the multiplex, A Quiet Place Part II debuts in Czech cinemas from June 10 just as multiplexes throughout the country reopen after eight months of closure.
And A Quiet Place Part II picks up right where the previous film left off without missing a beat. Fans of the first movie with any interest in following these characters and their story will not leave disappointed, though the primary focus is on delivering survival-horror thrills rather than advancing a world-building narrative.
A Quiet Place Part II opens in unfamiliar territory: a Little League game in small-town America during the not-so-distant past before the monster apocalypse. As dad Lee (Krasinski), mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt), and daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) watch son Marcus (Noah Jupe) play ball, an alien exhaust trail is spotted above the field.
Soon, the entire town is swarming with spindly alien creatures that act as killing machines, clawing at everyone in their path and tossing them around like ragdolls. But since they don’t seem to be feeding on the humans, what, exactly, is their purpose here? The townsfolk seem to pick up pretty quickly that these monsters respond to sound, though you’d reactively try to remain silent in the presence of a predator.
We didn’t really need this flashback origin story to understand the monster threat well established in the earlier film, but it’s a taut and exciting sequence (Krasinski even apes Children of Men with a brief tracking shot from the backseat of a car) and also introduces a new character: Lee’s sympathetic friend Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who disappears once the aliens show up.
That’s important, because the rest of A Quiet Place Part II picks up directly after the events of the first film, and the family just happens to run into Emmett while roaming the post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of sanctuary. He’s been living in an abandoned warehouse complete with an air-tight and sound-proof chamber that can lock from the outside if the door is shut hard enough.
Unfortunately, Emmett doesn’t seem all that interested in helping his old friends out, and insists they leave his place as soon as they can. And A Quiet Place Part II settles into two lengthy subplots as daughter Regan appeals to Emmett’s good nature for the sake of any other people who might be out there, and the rest of the family try to survive and provide oxygen for their newborn child.
Murphy’s reluctant, despondent survivor makes for a nice alternative to Krasinski’s heroic father figure from the first film, and Emmett’s journey is one of the best things about A Quiet Place Part II. The actor’s quietly sympathetic performance as the primary new addition to the cast helps carry the film.
A Quiet Place Part II is short and sweet, and largely composed of scenes of the cast attempting to remain silent as the alien monsters stalk around them. We see a lot more of the monsters this time around, and in better lighting; while their behavior recalls the titular characters from the Alien franchise, however, their design is nowhere near as iconic.
An abrupt ending here underscores the fact that A Quiet Place Part II is largely unconcerned with story and world-building, and content to deliver monster-movie thrills. And that’s just fine. As long as you can buy into the premise, this sequel is just as good as the original film, if not even a touch better.
About that premise: like The Purge movies, it seems to make less and less sense the more you think about it. These characters should have better solutions to their problem (why don’t they live by something that masks their sound, like that waterfall from the first film?) and like Signs, the aliens have a clear weakness that’s never really exploited, though there’s a better attempt this time around.
But A Quiet Place Part II is taut and exciting enough that you’re not thinking about these things while you’re watching the movie. And director Krasinski’s innovative use of sound and silence, asking that viewers pay close attention to the visual language of the film, makes this a perfect cinematic experience to enjoy as the world returns to the multiplexes.
One Response
Better than the first and Day One even better than this one. Have no special affection for this series but it improves with each entry.