Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path.
When John Krasinski directed “A Quiet Place” in 2018, nobody knew it would go on to become a cultural phenomenon and some even said it was a fluke and that Krasinski would probably go on to join the ranks of Neill Blomkamp, Michael Cimino, Richard Kelly, and Tony Kaye, filmmakers who were one-hit-wonders, and while they continued to make movies, they never achieved the same level of success than they did with their one triumphant piece of work. Well, I’m here to tell you that Krasinski is no one-hit-wonder, in fact, he has achieved the near-impossible, a sequel that rivals and even surpasses the original. Most sequels are carbon copies of the first in the series, minus the originality, think “Friday the 13th” and its endless plethora of uncreative follow-ups, as well as “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Halloween,” and “Hellraiser,” the more sequels they produced, the less inspiring they became.
Here, Krasinski, wearing the hat of both writer and director, expands upon the characters and their storylines from the first film and broadens their universe, including that of the aliens. You could compare “A Quiet Place” to Ridley Scott’s seminal masterpiece “Alien,” where a group of people are slowly and meticulously hunted by a lifeforce they have no understanding of until the end. And you could make the correlation between “A Quiet Place Part II” and James Cameron’s all-out action classic, “Aliens,” where the central protagonist from the first film continues their story arc into the second, moving away from the original’s one solitary location, and progressing into the outside world.
The film begins with a flashback, showing the aliens crashing to earth in a thunderous meteoroid, who then proceed to tear the town and its inhabitants apart. Lee Abbott (Krasinski) and his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their four children manage to get to safety and then we flash forward to the present, which picks up directly after the events of the first film. Evelyn decides that she and her family can’t stay in their home any longer for fear that more of the creatures will find them so she decides to head north, in the hopes that they will find civilization. They slowly, and quietly, begin their trek but run into trouble when Marcus accidentally steps on a bear trap at a seemingly abandoned railway station. Screaming at the top of his lungs in pain, he is rescued by Emmett (Cillian Murphy), an old friend of the family who has managed to survive inside an old bunker in the station’s basement. He safely gets them inside the bunker before the creatures catch up with them.
Evelyn uses alcohol on Marcus’ wounds but knows that she will have to find medication for him soon before his foot becomes infected. Later on, when things are quiet, using his dad’s old radio in the hopes of picking up any sort of signal, Evelyn’s son Marcus (Noah Jupe) comes across a looped recording of Jack Lawrence’s song “Beyond the Sea,” and using a map left behind by her father, the eldest of the children, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), who is also deaf, ascertains that the signal must be coming from a tower on an island just off the coast and that there must be life there. She waits until everyone is asleep and then leaves by herself. Later, when Evelyn learns what happened from Marcus, she begs Emmett to go after her and bring her back safely. He reluctantly agrees and quickly catches up with her. After an encounter with one of the creatures, he tells her he is there to bring her back but when she informs him of her plan, he decides to help her.
When they reach the coast, they see a large radio tower on the island and decide to head for the dock but things don’t go according to plan. Back in the bunker, Evelyn leaves Marcus in charge while she heads into town to pick up medical supplies and oxygen for the baby but when she returns, the bunker is on fire and one of the creatures is inside, trying to kill her children. She must quickly formulate a plan if she, and her kids, are to survive.
While “A Quiet Place Part II” most certainly takes us and the characters away from the remote territory of the first film, Krasinski is at his very best when he traps characters in small, confined places while the creatures try to force their way in. If you suffer from claustrophobia, be warned! While we get to see more of the aliens, it’s only what Krasinski allows us to see. Like Spielberg and “Jaws” before him, he chooses wisely not to allow us to see too much of the creatures, we hear them, we can sense them, and believe me, that is more than enough to know when they are near. One of Krasinski’s greatest strengths is allowing the story to unfold naturally, it is never forced, it takes its time, it gives us plenty of quiet moments and he doesn’t have the creature needlessly jump out of the dark just to frighten us, or because twenty minutes have elapsed and it’s time to scare the pants off us again, Evelyn and her family are the heart and soul of the story and we follow them and want to make sure they are safe when they turn around every corner.
So many horror films these days focus too much on blood and gore and give their audiences little to no time to soak up the atmosphere. While Evelyn is walking very quietly back into town, there is never the feeling that one of the aliens is going to randomly attack her because she is being so quiet but it just might, the chances that something could happen always linger but Krasinski leads us into a false sense of security because, after all, this is a scary movie so anything is possible. Cinematographer Polly Morgan’s fluid and energetic camera movements harken back to the early days of John Carpenter and on more than one occasion, the old horror trope that consists of a character walking backward toward the camera with the expectation of them bumping into the killer (or, in this case, the alien), occurs but the expected outcome never transpires so the anxiety and tension increase tenfold. “A Quiet Place Part II” is not a film we observe, we’re having it happen to us because it is a visceral experience, and we are totally immersed in it.
The cast overall is terrific in their respective roles and Irish actor Cillian Murphy makes a welcome addition to the story. While Emily Blunt and John Krasinski were the saviors of their family in the first film, here, each character, especially the children, serves a purpose and without each of them working collectively, they would most certainly meet their demise. Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe bring innocence and naiveté to their roles but as the movie progresses, they have no choice but to mature and leave their childhood behind as they grow into strong and resourceful young adults, alongside their courageous mother, Evelyn. Naturally, the ending is left wide open for another sequel, and based on this one, I eagerly await Part III with bated breath. Try to see this in a Dolby Theater if possible, the sound will literally blow you away.
Now available on Digital HD and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray, and DVD July 27th
