A big part of the appeal of A Quiet Place Part II, like its predecessor, lies in the sensory shock that happens when the sound cuts out and the characters go mum to escape the notice of the unseen monsters stalking them. The monsters can hear everything, and even the tiniest noise can mean death by dismemberment. It’s a clever premise for a horror movie, and it’s thrilling to experience the tension of the silence as the suspense ratchets up. For those watching in a movie theater (as this reviewer did), the unease can be almost unbearable, but it’s also an ideal movie to watch in the communal setting where everyone around is holding their breath, like the characters on screen, even if it spells doom for concession stands hoping to sell more popcorn and munchies.
Picking up the story where 2018’s A Quiet Place left off, Part II, written and directed by John Krasinski and based on characters originated by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, meets the basic criteria for a satisfying sequel: more of the same, but different. It manages to expand the postapocalyptic world quite a bit, which is refreshing, before settling back into some of the same patterns and narrative devices. In both films, tight editing, clever directing and stellar acting sell the story so well that the logical inconsistencies don’t set in until the credits have rolled.
Tantalizingly, the film opens with a title card flashing back to “Day 1.” It’s a sunny afternoon in a small New England town where folks are gathered for a Little League game. Marcus Abbott’s (Noah Jupe) at-bat is interrupted by the sight of a fireball blazing across the summer sky, clearing the bleachers as everyone makes a run for it. Mayhem ensues, with a sudden ramping up of chaos, violence and mass panic as some very nasty aliens begin carving a path of destruction through the town. This was all alluded to in the first film, but the shocking speed with which the world ends makes for a rousing spectacle, on-par with the initial attack sequence in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005). The only element that strikes a false note is the way all the townspeople decide en masse to leave the baseball game at the first sight of scary meteors. Recent social trends suggest that a good portion of folks would insist on exercising their freedom to be massacred by aliens at the Little League game. For family man Lee Abbott (John Krasinski), it’s a chance to figure out the killer creatures’ method: they’re super-sensitive to sound and kill anything that makes a peep.
From there, the story jumps ahead to the aftermath of the first film, where Evelyn (Emily Blunt) finds herself alone on the Abbott farm with their remaining children: Marcus, Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and the baby, who mostly stays in a sound-proofed box. The filmmakers make economical work of reminding audiences of the major points of the previous film without resorting to flashbacks. The story swiftly moves the Abbotts along as Evelyn leads her children on a hike out of the valley, and while the alien menace remains the central tension, several changes of setting and an expanded cast make for welcome new directions. Cillian Murphy appears as a familiar townie, Emmett, who may not be altogether safe or sane after losing his family to the monsters. He warns Evelyn that the people who are left alive aren’t good anymore, introducing another strand of tension to the plot. It’s not terribly original, but it’s edge-of-your-seat effective.
The first film, also directed by Krasinski, withheld showing the monsters for a good chunk of the runtime, while A Quiet Place Part II isn’t shy about letting the audience see exactly what to be afraid of: gangly, long-armed creatures with slashing claws and pointy teeth. Their superhuman speed and viciousness drain a bit of the menace, as they seem essentially unstoppable, apt to burst out of the woods at the sound of a leaf crinkling. Against such foes, who stands a chance? What the film does well involves interwoven storylines as different characters go off on their own, getting into various kinds of trouble. Cross-cutting from one crisis to another, in synch with a creepily discordant score by Marco Beltrami, the tension ratchets steadily up as the characters struggle to move in total silence.
However, not all parallel storylines are created equally. Blunt does a fine job of communicating intense emotion and fierce maternal instinct, but she’s left somewhat stranded in the third act with little to do but react as her children make choices, trying to emulate their brave but departed father. Simmonds, however, is magnetic in the role of the eldest daughter, who is deaf and wears a cochlear implant, and who is determined to find the source of an ambiguous radio broadcast her brother detected. Her storyline becomes the driving force of the film as she makes her way through hostile territory, unable to hear if the monsters are approaching. A deaf girl hunted by super-hearing predators makes for a nail-biting premise, her secret weapon being her comfort with operating in silence. The secondary storylines featuring Marcus and Evelyn start to feel less essential, and suffer somewhat from the what-the-hell-are-they-thinking problem that plagues certain characters in horror movies like this one. But while the film plays, you won’t want to talk back to the screen, or even make a peep. Silence, after all, is the only way to make it through.
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