Back in 2018 A Quiet Place hit cinemas from the guy who was Jim Halpert in the US Office. Since then John Krasinski career has taken off in a huge way. He’s now pretty much connected to every big film project that requires a leading man, most recently the upcoming Fantastic Four project from Marvel (And let’s be honest who wouldn’t want to see him and real life wife and Mary Poppins, Emily Blunt as the Richards family?) it was inevitable that at some point A Quiet Place II would arrive and now it has.
Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
Following directly on from the moment the original ended with Evelyn (Blunt) and her children, Regan (The magnificent Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe), they set off on the next part of their quest to survive where we meet their former neighbour, Emmett (Cillian Murphy) and new path to survival is discovered, possibly on a island and so begins this next chapter as the family set off to see if it’s real or not.
There’s a flashback to how the alien invasion began, which also introduces Murphy’s character, which compliments the film tremendously as it gets you back with the family and immediately has you invested in the Abbotts quest for survival.
The cast are simply phenomenal here from top to bottom but this once again is totally Simmonds movie. Despite the ridiculousness of the deaf character leading the way to finding their sanctuary it brings back haunting memories of the hideous M. Night Shyamalan movie The Village (They send a blind girl off into the woods to find help where there are creatures lurking that have been killing villagers, when SPOILER ALERT – the parents are behind it all and know the fastest route out…), but it never veers into that completely. In fact the silence only aids in ratcheting up the tension at all times. A Quiet Place II is a brilliant sequel, that truly lives up to the hype.
If you like your apocalyptic survival type films/shows i.e. The Walking Dead, The Last Of Us then A Quiet Place will hit all the right beats. But if that’s the kind of thing that causes you to roll your eyes, then A Quiet Place II may seem a little generic.
The film leaves us at a point where it’s open for a third part and on this movie, it would be more than welcome, however Krasinski is going to have to come up with something spectacular to stop this from becoming a new generic horror series that rolls out its yearly sequel and bludgeoning something that was previously worth while to death. We wait with baited breath John.
A Quiet Place II is in cinemas now
