A Quiet Place Part II (Movie Review)

After over a year of pandemic related delays, audiences are now able to catch up with the continued antics of the Abbott family and their super-hearing foes. But before we regroup with shotgun-toting, postpartum Emily Blunt and family, A Quiet Place Part II gives us our first look at  how the monsters’ invasion unfolded.

The sequence takes place in a small town where the weekend tranquility of a relaxing baseball game is interrupted by an unidentified object slowly flying over the town. The flaming debris sends residents rushing home, searching for answers or safety. The town folks’ escape is violently interrupted as the vicious monsters start ripping the town to shreds.

The film cuts back to the remaining members of the Abbott family as they regroup from the harrowing events of the first film. The origin of the creatures could be a source of contention amongst fans as inevitably there will be two sides: those who believe it’s more effective to have as little antagonist backstory as possible, and those who are dying to fill out the lore. The ominous imagery of a fiery object flying through the sky is triggering and horrifying enough for audiences to engage in dialogue about the possibilities. Regardless, the opening is the most Part II has to say on the matter of the creature’s origin.

Like the movie as a whole, director and co-writer John Krasinsky hasn’t lost a step since the first film and the script hints at an event that brought the mysterious creatures to our doorsteps. The bulk of the film shrewdly follows the immediate actions of a desperate family trying to escape the wreckage of their home and find a new safe haven. So they begin with a distant neighbor, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), seen briefly in the opening as a resident whose brother may work for a military outfit. Emmett too has suffered loss over the course of the 474 days since the monsters’ arrival and he has all but lost faith in the goodness of humanity. However, when Regan (Millicent Simmonds), the Abbott family’s resourceful, hearing impaired daughter, discovers a working radio signal, she goes in search of its source. Armed with the knowledge of the creature’s weaknesses, Regan seeks to provide the hope of humanity’s only chance to fight back.

A Quiet Place Part II scales up the action as it separates the characters into three groups to carry out different tasks, each rife with horror and tension. Emmett quests to “save” Regan, Evelyn (Emily Blunt) leaves to stock up on vital supplies, and Marcus (Noah Jupe) stays behind at Emmett’s stronghold to watch over the new baby. Each protagonist inevitably runs into intense complications that have ripple effects for the others. The sequences are edited together perfectly, and the tension mounts to great effect. Krasinsky’s script smartly keeps the story from jumping in time and takes place over the course of days following the first film. This strategy leaves the bones of the original still intact as the sequel continues to tackle an intimate story of one family’s survival while the world around them has an epic and terrifying scope that they are only beginning to grasp.

A Quiet Place benefited from the unexpected thrills it’s near silent premise invited and unfortunately, the sequel loses the element of surprise while shouldering the monumental weight of audience expectation. As a result, this is a sequel that isn’t really trying to do anything new with its premise, so the lack of true narrative ingenuity from the previous entry is sorely missing.

John Krasinsky expertly crafts palpable tension from every second of A Quiet Place Part II. Audiences who were fans of the orginal should get mostly what they want out of this and it’s hard to imagine a significant disappointment when the credits roll. Still, as the plot thickens, fans are going to start seeing through the formula and grow hungry for some risks to be taken outside of skillfully rendered tension.