2018’s A Quiet Place was an excellent film, emerging out of the minor trend for sensory deprivation horror – such as Pitch Black, Don’t Breathe, Birdbox – but using as the basis for its own horrors sound, rather than sight. Added to this, it placed the audience straight into a monster mythos, with no information about its origins. It just was. The world had been decimated by creatures which hunted by sound alone; the Abbott family had managed to survive, largely through their ability to use sign language, learned in order to communicate with daughter Regan, who is Deaf (and is played by a Deaf actress, Millicent Simmonds, in both of the films to date). However, their losses had already been severe, and Evelyn’s pregnancy and imminent birth precipitate an insurmountable risk; babies are quite hard to keep quiet. But, a chance discovery allows the family to fight back; at the close of the first film, things looked if not quite hopeful, then marginally less desperate, and the expression on actor Emily Blunt’s face as she realises what she can do is a superb way to bring the first film to a close.
I say ‘first film’, as it transpires that a third chapter of A Quiet Place has already been green-lit, with a release date for 2023. This has no doubt affected what’s been included in Part II; there is no great pressure to explain everything, or even to offer that much additional context for audiences. There is some, though in some respects the back story elements offered raise as many questions as they answer. Rather, A Quiet Place Part II sticks to the formula which worked for the first chapter, doling out only a little in the way of significant knowledge about these creatures, but sticking with the remaining members of the Abbott family and their struggle for survival. Some of this is a little repetitive in terms of plot points, but you can forgive that because it’s paced very well, the family is as likeable and plausible as they ever were, and let’s be honest: the creatures themselves are a welcome addition to our existing array of cold-hearted super predators. What is lacking in terms of what their game plan actually is apart from ‘rip everybody apart for sport’ is offset by some interesting creature design, strong action sequences and conversely, lots of solid, slow-burn suspense. These critters can do it all.
Part II begins after the first film left off, with what’s left of the safe house; despite having killed the creatures which were in the local vicinity, Evelyn knows they can’t just stay where they are and so the family takes part in that staple of apocalyptic cinema, the Long Walk. (Think The Road.) The film does, though, give us a glimpse of what life was like before the creatures appeared, with father Lee (director and Mr Emily Blunt, John Krasinski) back with us, at least in flashback; one of the things which the film excels at is contrast, so the lively, everyday scenes giving way to absolute chaos work very well against scenes from the aftermath, where silence is paramount. That all being said, A Quiet Place Part II is an audiophile’s dream, particularly if you are lucky enough to see the film in surround sound; sound is used very carefully and precisely, and the range of high action and quiet tension play off one another very well indeed.
Do we find out anything significant about the creatures themselves? Well, something is revealed, though you have to wait for it, but perhaps more to the point there is some evidence of other survivors – via a song on a radio channel playing on loop, which seems to indicate a clue about the survivors’ whereabouts and a new location to find. There’s also a new character to contend with in the form of Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a man we are shown early on as a friend of the family. This allows the film to ponder different responses to the extraordinary circumstances these people have found themselves in, essentially individualism vs collectivism, and Emmett’s progression from a closed-off character ready to level a gun at a child, to a very different man by the film’s close is a good addition, especially given the dwindling number of Abbotts left. The family group splits up, too, which allows the plot to encompass different details and revelations, as well as upping the ante in terms of creature encounters – which the film does not scrimp on.
It remains to be seen whether more exposition is coming in what will surely be the final part of this story, a couple of years from now; that being said, not everything needs to be neatly tied up and the films to date certainly haven’t suffered by not explaining absolutely every element. Parts I and II do mirror each other, with the middle chapter spending a good amount of its run time echoing similar crises and scenes too, but at no point did this feel dull: Krasinski, who has presided over two very good films here, has shown himself adept at balancing human drama and relationships against supernatural threat and often grisly content. He has, however, stood down from Part III, with Jeff Nichols currently named as director: I sincerely hope that this shift doesn’t scupper what has been built so far, but it’s clear that Nichols will have very big boots to fill and lots of decisions to make.
A Quiet Place Part II is available in cinemas now.