A Quiet Place Part II

 

A Quiet Place Part II is as lean as films get. Just over 90 minutes long and it manages to introduce a fully realised new character to an existing story and widen the world in a believable fashion while still letting us stay terrified for the people we got to know in the first film. Studio's take note please. Not every sequel has to be 2.5 hours long. I'm looking at you F9 and No Time To Die. No Time To Die? At 163 minutes there's plenty of fuckin' time to die.

Jim Halpert. The beanpole with the shaggy haircut who lived to torture Dwight Schrute and love Pam Beasley. Who knew the man who played him (John Krazinski) had it in him to become a director capable of creating set pieces that almost knock you out because you forget to breathe. There's at least 3 absolute nail biters in A Quiet Place II that will leave you on edge and amazingly it's the first one that works best despite the fact that the characters in peril cannot die. It's a flashback to a year before the events of the first film. Lee Abbott (Krazinski) is driving through a deserted town to pick up half time oranges for his kid's baseball game. The store keeper is glued to the tv news. Something bad is hinted at. Things start to feel ominous and they double down as a meterorite tears through the sky above the game. All hell breaks loose. Otherworldly beings rip and shred their way through the town as Lee, his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their kids try to escape. We know they'll be ok but jesus it's terrifying.

Cut to the present day. Lee is gone and Evelyn and her children Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe) have just killed one of the creatures. Their farm is ruined and they need to move and hopefully find other survivors by tracking a mysterious song that's been playing over the airwaves. Along the way they bump into Emmett (Cillian Murphy), an old family friend in full survivalist mode who's traumatised by the loss of his family. But he's not the one playing the song and Regan isn't going to rest until she finds out who's behind it.

As is the way with sequels you'd go into this expecting more of the same and you get plenty of it but writer/director Krazinski is smart enough to change things up somewhat and the injection of Cillian Murphy's Emmett into the narrative is a great idea. Without saying much at all he gives us a sense of the wider world that was missing from the intimate focus of the first film. Civilisation has crumbled and as always humans have really let themselves down and his tales of people hunting in feral packs are almost as threatening as the aliens they all hide from. His and Regan's encounter with one such pack is nerve-wracking but the way it's flows organically into a huge solution is really well done and it shows us how simple, efficient solutions are always better than exposition packed speeches and deus ex machina discoveries. One of the many much appreciated ways to keep a film under 100 minutes.

His appearance also splits the cast and lets the younger members shine especially Millicent Simmonds's Regan. She gets way more to do this time around as Emily Blunt steps back and her actions propel the story forward. She really goes for it during a trainset encounter that will leave you sick with fear. You gotta love seeing the kids stepping up and taking care of business. I wish more films would give em a chance. Her character is deaf (as is she in real life) and the story once again uses this to unnerve and disorient, cutting between her soundless POV and the terrifying grinding, smashing and screaming world of the beasties. As you can imagine, the pin drop silences of part 1 are mostly gone and it's not a bad thing because it just wouldn't suit this more chaotic and kinetic sequel.

A Quiet Place Part II is in cinemas now. If you loved the first you'll get a kick out of this one too. Oh and this time around you can loudly rustle your popcorn without pissing off everyone else. Win-Win.