A Quiet Place Part 2

Film: A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

Stars: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, John Krasinski

Director: John Krasinski

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Fans of horror films wear that as a badge-of-honor, and I am admittedly jealous of this fact.  Horror films have oftentimes struggled to grain traction not just in the critical canon, but also in the pop culture zeitgeist at-large, and as a result we see people who have devoted themselves to little-seen sequels to movies or longer chapters in the tales of Freddy, Chucky, & Jason.  I just don't really have the stomach for a lot of horror, as it scares me too much, and so I tend to keep most of my horror film viewings confined to pre-1960 movies if I'm marathoning (we do a marathon on this blog in October every year focusing on classic horror films).  As a result, I miss out on the amazing cult classic culture that horror fans get to trade in, especially for sequels.  A Quiet Place Part II is one of the only horror sequels I can genuinely confirm I saw in theaters (real talk-I see hundreds of movies every year, including dozens in theaters, and I can count on one hand how many horror sequels I've seen in a darkened theater), and so while this is nowhere near as special as getting to be a horror film expert, I am excited to get a peak today into the clubhouse.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place immediately after the events of the first film (you will need to have seen the first movie in order to watch this movie & understand it), where Lee Abbott (Krasinski) has just died to save the lives of his children Regan (Simmonds) and Marcus (Jupe).  These two, along with their mother Evelyn (Blunt) have discovered the secret to killing the alien invaders-a high frequency noise that will temporarily impair the aliens, allowing them to be vulnerable to a gunshot.  The three fight, though, on what to do next, potentially going to an island community that they believe exists (since the aliens cannot swim), with Regan insisting they look for it, but Evelyn resisting.  They meet up with an old friend named Emmett (Murphy), who has lost his entire family & lives alone, and after Regan escapes, he goes after her, eventually going to the island community and (after accidentally killing half of the residents, including surprise cameo Djimon Hounsou), they stop the aliens by putting Regan's hearing aid onto a radio speaker, giving all in the listening area the ability to fight the aliens.

The movie does a much better job than the initial film did with some of the elements of the picture, particularly the use of the musical score, which in the original was blaring constantly and taking away from the moody terror of a world without noise.  It's still there, but it feels more judicious, as if director Krasinski actually read the reviews about how people liked the movie, but this took them totally out of it.  The film is well-acted, with Simmonds in particular standing out as a brilliant young performer (honestly-she and Jupe might be the best child actors working currently, and that they're both in the same film series is a coup for Krasinski as a director).

That said, the movie's story isn't as resonant or tight as the original.  Murphy is a fine actor (one could argue better than Krasinski), but he serves as a proxy for Regan's lost father, and it doesn't work as well-the chemistry isn't as solid, and it feels like the writer didn't know how to handle the first film's central figure being killed off (it feels, even more so, like they made a movie without any intention of a sequel, and when it was a hit they didn't know how to extend a story that didn't really need to be continued).  There are too many little touches throughout the movie that feel like padding (Hounsou's character getting introduced just to have him disappear, the zombie-like figures that stay near the docks who try to murder Murphy's Emmett), almost as if you're trying to set up A Quiet Place 3, which while that might be inevitable, is also lazy storytelling, since movies need to stand on their own.  As a result, this is a technically-more impressive picture than the first film (the sound work, scoring, & acting are all elevated even further), but it's one with a weaker central tale.