Shhhhhhhhhhh……………..
Main Cast: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy
Director: John Krasinski
First things first. If you have not seen the original A Quiet Place, you should do that before seeing A Quiet Place Part II. The sequel doesn’t really stand on its own and relies heavily on knowledge from the first movie.
In A Quiet Place II we begin at the beginning, something we did not do in the original. John Krasinski makes an appearance as Lee Abbott as we see what happened on Day One. The creatures that stalk and kill by sound arrived in the middle of a little league game in the family’s small town.
We then flash forward to the time immediately following the first installment. Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) and her now three children are on their own. Regan (Millicent Simmonds) is the eldest, and is deaf. The entire family, as a result, knows sign language and that does come in really handy.
Marcus (Noah Jupe) is now the middle child, since Evelynn gave birth at the end of the first film. The family needs to find a safe place for themselves and the new baby. They head towards the town they left behind on Day One hoping to find a safe haven.
A Quiet Place Part II doesn’t stray far from its roots. The emphasis is on family and survival. We learn a little more about the creatures, and about other groups of survivors, but the core of the Abbott family still has center stage.
Emily Blunt’s Evelyn is a silent warrior and she gives a great performance. She has a lot of grieving to do but she is steadfast in her goal of protecting her children. Once again having contact with Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who was a friend before the creatures, challenges her image of other survivors but does not alter her priorities.
Also notable are both Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe. They solidify their young characters’ personalities and move the story forward. The scariness of Regan’s deafness is underscored several times. In a world where making a sound can be deadly it’s terribly dangerous to be unable to hear.
A Quiet Place II has a fair number of jump scares. Most of the horror is, of course, pretty quiet, but director Krasinski doesn’t shy away from pants-wetting scariness when it serves his purposes. For me, there were a few too many and the monsters lost some of their luster by the end.
For the most part A Quiet Place II is the equal of its predecessor. The premise is no longer quite as novel, but Krasinski makes up for it by introducing new characters and giving us a taste of the beginning of this particular dystopia. I could have done with fewer jump scares but overall it’s a solid mainstream horror film.
Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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