A Quiet Place Part II (2021)
Some sequels are just more of the same, and others actually build upon their predecessors. “A Quiet Place Part II” succeeds as a rare example of the latter. It’s impressive on director John Krasinski’s part to not turn in a warmed-over retread when 2018’s
“A Quiet Place” was such a crackerjack, near-silent suspenser that mastered how to shut us all up and work us up to a fever pitch for 90 minutes. Silencing anyone’s skepticism, Krasinski delivers once again with more pulse-pounding chase set-pieces and an affecting through-line when it comes to still caring about this family of characters and their barefoot journeys. Tense and made with such precision, “A Quiet Place Part II” is right on par with its predecessor.
Ostensibly, this is “Part II,” but it begins as “Pre-Part I” by starting with “Day 1.” In a terrifying and attention-grabbing extended opening sequence before the world became a post-apocalyptic wasteland, an idyllic small town is invaded by otherworldly creatures after a meteor sighting. Parents Lee (John Krasinski) and Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) are just living their normal lives at their son Marcus' (Noah Jupe) baseball game before the sky lights up and the town explodes into run-for-your-life pandemonium. Once the Abbotts quickly realize what they’re up against, the film continues where “A Quiet Place” left off: after Lee has sacrificed himself for his children on Day 474, deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) has learned that the amplified sound of her cochlear implant can weaken the monstrous enemy, while Evelyn empties shotgun rounds into one of the creatures. Left to keep herself and her children (including that pesky newborn that couldn't wait), Evelyn leads her family from their farmhouse to an industrial warehouse, where they meet up with an acquaintance (Cillian Murphy) from their normal life in a temporary safe haven. When Regan happens upon a broadcast with Bobby Darin's song "Beyond the Sea" playing on a loop, it could be a signal, making her think that what lies beyond the sand path may be worth finding out.
“A Quiet Place Part II” begins with such a thrilling bang that one fears everything following its cold open couldn’t possibly match it. Writer-director John Krasinski, who receives sole screenwriting credit this time, widens the scale off the top but wisely reverts back to the intimacy of the first film without the “bigger, if not necessarily better” motto of a lot of sequels. He evolves his simple concept just enough. The approach with the script is still efficient and streamlined, giving us everything we need to know without any spoken exposition of what these creatures want and where they come from. All that mattered then is all that matters now: as the first film’s tagline goes, “if they hear you, they hunt you” (and instantly kill you).
Krasinski’s opening set-piece is a bravura of sustained, relentlessly paced tension and unbearably stress-inducing daytime terror before the title card, forcing Evelyn to quickly reverse her truck as an oncoming bus makes its way with a monster coming through the bus windshield, but he’s just getting started. Lulling us into what will become a nightmarish reality, there’s comfortable safety in seeing Lee Abbott alive and well (as well as their youngest son), grabbing a few things at the local corner store, until passing the pharmacy and passing an aisle with the toy rocket ship forebodingly sitting on the shelf. He knows how to oil his machine of suspense with a first-rate marriage of sound design and editing, particularly when it comes to the parallel editing of different moving narratives as the family gets separated. There’s a careful balance in pacing, when to slow down for the characters to catch a breath and when to ramp up things again, and when to rely on sound and when to drop it out to place us in Regan’s worldview with major impact.
If John Krasinski echoed Spielberg in the first film without blatant imitation, he does the same here; even a moment in a car with Regan somehow reminds of Lex's close-call leg moment in “Jurassic Park.” The monsters are shown even more this time around without losing the formidable menace and weight they brought before. Krasinski puts his cast through the wringer again and pulls another emotionally available performance out of his wife, Emily Blunt. But it's the heroic Millicent Simmonds who gets to shine the most, extending Regan’s resourceful quest for absolution and survival. Even more so than before, her hearing disability is her superpower and crucial to the monsters’ weakness; what’s more, the 18-year-old actor has a great face for horror. Both Simmonds and an expressive Noah Jupe, as brother Marcus, are never relegated to being just pawns in peril. It’s a shame that a mute Scoot McNairy and Djimon Hounsou don’t get a ton to sink their teeth into playing, respectively, Marina Man and Man on Island, but Cillian Murphy paints a sorrowful story as Emmett, a man who may or may not be trusted. Just in time for theaters to reopen, “A Quiet Place Part II” is exactly the type of pin-drop communal experience that keeps an audience rapt throughout. Making one actually excited for a “Part III” isn’t a bad place to be.
Grade: B +
Paramount Pictures is releasing “A Quiet Place Part II” (97 min.) in theaters on May 28, 2021.
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