Review: A Quiet Place Part II

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Shorter on invention — and purpose for at least several of its characters — than its predecessor, John Krasinski's follow-up to his surprise 2018 hit, "A Quiet Place," is a lean horror sequel that ups the ante on action sequences, jump scares and special effects. Not surprisingly, it doesn't feel as original this time around, but as far as these type of things go, it gets the job done.

The picture opens with a flashback scene that's not exactly necessary, but is well executed. Taking place on "Day 1," we see the film's main family heading to a baseball game, with Krasinksi's Lee very much still alive and Emily Blunt's Evelyn shepherding the three — gulp — children toward the sporting event. It's at this game that the sky suddenly opens up to expose some sort of spaceship, and shortly thereafter people are running from the large, crab-looking monsters that move by sense of sound.

The film then cuts to the present, which is set just after the end of the first picture, as Evelyn and her two surviving children - Regan (Millicent Simmonds), a deaf girl, and Marcus (Noah Jupe), who wins the award for making the worst decisions of any character in this latest film — try to find a new place to stay. They stumble upon an old warehouse, where they run into a lone man — Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who was among many parents at the opening scene's baseball game — who, at first, tells them they can't stay with him. He'd lost his entire family to the creatures when they took over Earth.

Regan comes up with an idea to seek out an island that she believes is transmitting signals through the radio via Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea," and sneaks off to do so, hoping that the island's inhabitants can help them. Evelyn then manages to convince Emmett to go catch up to the girl before she gets herself killed.

It's at this point that Krasinski makes a curious choice to separate his two groups of characters for the rest of the film — Evelyn must go off on her own to find help for Marcus, whose foot gets badly injured and must stay with the family's newborn. Meanwhile, Emmett catches up to Regan, who at first doesn't trust him, but the duo's budding friendship results in the film's most interesting sequences, especially after the two of them finally make their way to the island — but they first stumble upon a group of nasty people, which leads to one of the picture's most intense action scenes.

The film's characters get varying mileage out of the material. Marcus' time alone with the baby isn't utilized to its full potential, while Blunt is surprisingly given the least to do this time around, whereas in the previous film, she was the anchor. On the other hand, Simmonds is quite good, and her relationship with Emmett — Murphy is the runner-up MVP here — gives the film its dramatic heft.

The movie clocks in at just over 90 minutes, and its abrupt ending adds to the feeling that the film feels less like a fully realized sequel, and more like a fast-paced continuation of the original one. Not a whole lot of ground is covered, there's little new exposition that does much to explain the series' central story and much of the action is mere reaction — in other words, things happening and the cast reacting to them. 

But "A Quiet Place Part II" is suspenseful and well made. The creative use of sound from the first picture doesn't feel as original this time around, but it's still more unique than your typical horror movie sequel.