It isn't often I leave the comfort zone of my hometown and head further afield, but upon getting the opportunity to see an early screening of A Quiet Place Part II I headed out to Leicester Square in London. From what I recall this movie was originally due out a week or so before all cinemas closed in the UK last year. It is fitting then that it is the first film I have gotten to see in a cinema since before the pandemic began here. I liked A Quiet Place, I liked the idea behind it and so I was sure a sequel would be hard to mess up. While this doesn't deviate much from the formula of the first film it does build on the foundations, uses the same returning actors and again makes much use of the idea of sound as the catalyst for horrors to come. There will be unavoidable spoilers for the first film here.
The prologue takes place on the day the monstrous aliens arrive from space. It turns expectations on its head by having a very noisy first ten minutes, the complete opposite of the first films near silent opener. A family day at little league baseball turns into a nightmare for the Abbott family. Made up of Lee (John Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their children that includes among them Marcus (Noah Jupe) and deaf Regan (Millicent Simmonds). Also caught up in the craziness of this initial attack is Emmett (Cillian Murphy - Batman Begins, 28 Days Later), a friend of the family whose introduction in this flashback sets him up for a larger role later in the film.
The rest picks up immediately after the end of A Quiet Place. The surviving Abbotts - Evelyn, Marcus, Regan may have finally discovered a way to kill the invading monsters but their farmstead lay in ruins and they are forced to leave, especially as Evelyn has a new-born baby to protect. They head up into the hills where Lee had identified other survivors may have been hiding. Here they encounter a despondent and potentially dangerous Emmett who has lost all hope in the world due to the death of his family. Evelyn is just looking for a place to hide but Regan is determined to share their discovery of the monsters weakness with the world, and upon finding a way to do this she secretly heads out on her own.
The rest picks up immediately after the end of A Quiet Place. The surviving Abbotts - Evelyn, Marcus, Regan may have finally discovered a way to kill the invading monsters but their farmstead lay in ruins and they are forced to leave, especially as Evelyn has a new-born baby to protect. They head up into the hills where Lee had identified other survivors may have been hiding. Here they encounter a despondent and potentially dangerous Emmett who has lost all hope in the world due to the death of his family. Evelyn is just looking for a place to hide but Regan is determined to share their discovery of the monsters weakness with the world, and upon finding a way to do this she secretly heads out on her own.
A Quiet Place Part II builds on what has come before but doesn't do much to significantly expand on the overall story. It felt similar to John Wick: Chapter 3 in that by the time the end credits role characters are essentially in the same position they were the previous time. A lot of what happens throughout the story is down to characters making bad decisions, and this can often be down to reasons that feel more believable than bad writing, especially when it comes to the young teens. A lot of the peril that happens here could have been avoided if not for the supreme danger the world is now in. One accidental knock of an object, one unavoidable outburst of sound brings the monsters running. A theme this time around seems to be about hope, how having it can imbue you with meaning and give you life. The people shown to be lacking it are sometimes just as bad as the monsters.
