Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay One of the last films to get any sort of press before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the movies down last March was John Krasinski’s sequel to his beloved horror film A Quiet Place. From what I heard about it, A Quiet Place Part II is a great follow-up to its predecessor. And based on my love of the first film, I was very excited to see the sequel. How do they both hold up? Let’s find out!
A Quiet Place (2018) Having seen it now twice via streaming services, I greatly regret not seeing A Quiet Place in theaters. While I still enjoy the film, I am wholly confident that I would absolutely love it had I seen it in theaters. Still, there’s a lot to like about Krasinski’s third directed feature film. First off, the gimmick (in my humble opinion) is more than a gimmick. Not only does Krasinski’s ingenious use of sound and, more importantly, silence offer a unique viewing experience, but it forces the story to be told as ergonomically as possible. The film has no “fat,” so to speak, but instead emphasizes slimmed-down dialogue (largely conducted via American Sign Language) and visual storytelling to convey the drama and terror of the family’s situation. By making sound the enemy and treating that seriously, Krasinski injects some new life into crowd-pleasing genre horror. Some specific moments with sound that I like are whenever the film shifts to the daughter Regan’s (Millicent Simmonds) perspective. As a deaf character (and deaf actress in real life), Krasinski expertly uses silence to make the audience understand the way that she experiences the world better than before. Also, when the mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt) screams in pain while in labor to synchronize with the blast of fireworks is a great way to release the tension of that moment while simultaneously upping the ante going forward. Finally, the methods devised by Lee (John Krasinski) to keep the cries from his newborn child muffled (i.e. a sound-proof dwelling underground, anesthesia in a box) are one of only a number of impressive examples of world building in the movie. Besides the film’s different approach to storytelling, A Quiet Place also offers some interesting characters for the audience to become invested in. With parents Lee and Evelyn devoted to protecting their children Regan and Marcus (Noah Jupe), a story about parenthood, family, grief, and guilt makes the film more than simply an interesting device for heightening the tension in a horror movie. I particularly appreciate the conversation between Lee and Marcus near the waterfall (the first of two spoken conversations in the film). The father-son dynamic explored there, and the son exemplifying wisdom beyond his years by acknowledging that he knows that Regan blames herself for what happened to their younger brother, is one of my favorite tender moments in the film. All in all, A Quiet Place may not be a masterpiece but it is a very good horror flick from the past decade that is worth the watch (hopefully with the best sound system possible). A Quiet Place Part II (2021) I am unquestionably confident that I would not like A Quiet Place Part II as much as I did if had I not seen it on the big screen. But I did, and I really enjoyed it. First, to highlight the strengths of this sequel. Like many other good sequels, A Quiet Place Part II does not (for the most part) just remake its predecessor. Instead, it builds on what happened before while also adding more to the world that it built and fleshing out the characters a little more. Specifically, I think that the characters arc of daughter Regan was handled much better than in the first film. Also, the addition of Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a lonely and helpful yet somewhat mysterious survivor, was welcoming as it added a new dynamic to the family trio as well as offered one of the more compelling arcs in the film. Furthermore, A Quiet Place Part II both recaptures the tension from the first movie and does new things with it due to some expert editing (particularly during the third act) that offers up some of the best of what modern horror cinema can do. Without going crazy with the sound-monsters gimmick, Krasinski manages to keep what could very well be a one-and-done, tacky plot device terrifying and exhilarating. Easily, however, my favorite part about this sequel was the opening scene that goes down as one of my favorite introductions to a film in recent memory. By continuing to use sound in a way that is not overindulgent, it holds back just enough to keep the audience’s curiosity peaked despite the fact that we already know what is going to happen. And yet, by showing the first day of this world going down the toilet through the eyes of Lee (Krasinski) and his family one is brought right back into the suspense-filled world that Krasinski designed three years ago. That being said, A Quiet Place Part II is not without its problems. To highlight a few of them, I found the use of both Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and Marcus (Noah Jupe) in the second act to be not nearly as interesting as either the first or third acts. Whereas Regan’s story was captivating from start to finish, those characters lacked the smart writing or engrossing arc in the middle of the movie which made them pale in comparison. Also, there were some instances of the monsters being used in a way that was just too convenient for the sake of moving the plot along. While it did not fully take me out of the film, those were definitely aspects of it that I feel show the writing of this film is slightly lesser than its predecessor. All in all, I thoroughly enjoy both films in the A Quiet Place series. The world-building is interesting (particularly after watching the sequel) and I am invested enough in the main characters that I would not mind seeing a third entry in the franchise in a couple of years. With all that being said, here is my ranking of John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place duology:
What are your thoughts on A Quiet Place and its sequel? What are some other modern horror movies that you recommend to others? What opinions of mine do you find absolutely ridiculous? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, this has been… Yours Truly, Amateur Analyst
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Austin McManusI have no academic or professional background in film production or criticism; I simply love watching and talking about movies. Archives
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