It’s a quieter place this time around as we bring you our A Quiet Place Part II review.
Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence.
Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
After A Quiet Place, we truly understood what people mean when they say a movie should absolutely be experienced in the cinemas.
The lights are down, the tension is high and you are gripped from start to finish in this world of terrifying silence and utter heart jolting suspense.
Taking place directly after the events of the first movie A Quiet Place Part II gives us a little backstory for those who may not have seen the first instalment.
Here we see John Krasinski (director and sole writer on the sequel) and are introduced to the events leading up to this creature invasion.
I thought this was a nice touch, introducing the normality of days gone by before life changed for good.
Dialogue is down to a minimum within A Quiet Place II as we once again communicate via sign language and short whispers.
Only an airtight container provides dialogue relief for these characters.
Armed with the knowledge of how to kill these creatures the search begins to find others and fight against these sound-targeted predators.
With such little dialogue, the audio design is sheer terrifying.
So delicately composed one minute and so sharp and edgy the next.
This perfectly blends with some drool-worthy dystopian shots of a now-abandoned world where everyone lives in fear and silence.
My blood pressure was simmering from start to finish as we are fully invested in the characters and the situations they end up in.
Whilst the second movie expands on the scares relying on more jumpy ones it also expands the world that they’re trying to create.
I thought in terms of scare-factor it was a little tamer than the original but was a worthy follow-up nonetheless that is absolutely worth the watch.
The movie is a visual spectacle balancing a fine line between tension and horror and the cast are back in full force delivering top-notch performances.
Mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt), deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), son Marcus (Noah Jupe) and baby Abbot head on their quest to find civilisation.
Millicent Simmonds steals the show in this one becoming a core focus of the film as she steps into her dad’s brave shoes and heads off on a one-woman mission.
There is certainly a passing of the torch vibe that runs throughout A Quiet Place Part II, where the adults stay in the shadows and the children come front and centre paving the way for the future, and maybe future instalments.
A Quiet Place series hands the reigns over to the vastly overlooked and underappreciated filmmakers in the sound and visuals department.
These guys create the world that we are witnessing, they are the puppet masters in this whole symphonic orchestra of terror and grippingly enjoyable suspense.
Cillian Murphy plays a nice little side-character called Emmett who helps Regan on her quest to find survivors and defeat the creatures.
His part wasn’t really necessary as some opening scene exposition comes full circle mid-way through the film in a glaringly predictable scene.
The story kind of splits off into three separate stories towards the end as we juggle between three scenarios and it’s hard to get invested in one when all three are bouncing between one another, but A Quiet Place II does deliver where it needs to.
It’s a film that really wasn’t needed in my opinion, the story is nearly identical to the last few scenes of the original movie just dragged out for effect over the part II runtime, but it’s slick and it was written with confidence.
But stand aside cast, director and crew.
It’s the audio designers and cinematographers who will pick up the plaudits for this one.
There are some real highlights throughout the film and some throwbacks to the original movie and it is just a solid package.
A shocking and intense whirlwind of cinema that still once the credits roll, however, doesn’t feel complete.
An Even Quieter Place Part III coming soon…
A Quiet Place Part II Review by Sean Evans
Our Rating
Summary
A Quiet Place Part II is a master of suspense, a thoroughly enjoyable and gripping experience but in what is essentially just a continuation of the original story with not much in the way of expansion, it remains a somewhat redundant yet nerve-jangling affair.
