In most circumstances, a sequel that’s just more of the same that made the original what it is can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it serves as one of the only conditions when the advice of Mike Love is a good thing to adhere to ("don’t fuck with the formula"), making sure that what worked last time isn’t tampered with. But on the other hand, if a continuation is going to exist in the first place, there needs to be something new added to the mix, if only to justify the exercise. And with A Quiet Place Part II finally making it to theatres, it feels like a good middle ground between those two ideals, resulting in a film where it being similar to what came before is far from a bad thing.
Writer/director John Krasinski shows enough sense to maintain the atmospheric elements that made the first Quiet Place as tense as it was, using sound design and an emphasis on context clues over dialogue to draw the audience’s attention directly to the soundscape within. It has the same breath-caught-in-the-chest sensation, where it almost tricks you into thinking any noise you make while watching it will bleed through into the film proper, which only further highlights how on-the-ball Krasinski already was in his idea of sensory horror.
Where things get interesting is in how he’s refined that formula the second time around, particularly when it comes to momentum, both visually and narratively. Visually, where Charlotte Bruus Christensen’s cinematography in the first film emphasised the stillness and desolation of the setting, Polly Morgan goes for a more urgent and kinetic depiction of the end of the world. She seems determined to keep the camera running for as long as possible, with a lot of long shots to keep the more intense moments contained. The opening scene, flashing back to the day the Angels landed, is a great introduction to the style, managing to re-energise the car scene from the trailers in a way that lets it stay scary, despite audiences potentially being familiar with it for over a year by this point.
As for the narrative, the way that scenes have been stacked together here squeezes a lot of dread out of the proceedings, with the story mainly split between Emily Blunt’s Evelyn, Noah Jupe’s Marcus, and reigning MVP of the now-series Millicent Simmonds as Regan teaming up with new face Cillian Murphy as Emmett. It’s a classic trick, one where the separate character actions align in terms of tone (i.e. when shit goes wrong for one of them, it proceeds to go wrong for the rest), but it’s pulled off very effectively here.
It probably helps that the characters are as strong as ever to keep the engagement rate as high as possible. Blunt doesn’t end up doing a whole lot here (although she certainly makes an impression when she is directly involved), with the focus mainly going to the kids this time around. With how much parenthood was at the forefront of the first film, highlighting the parents trying to teach their young to survive in a world where doomsday is the new normal (let’s try not to draw too much attention to how familiar that idea has become since the first film’s release), it makes sense for the follow-up to be more about the kids making use of all that knowledge.
And make use of it they do, as not only does Simmonds continue to shine as the action hero of the film, but Noah Jupe also steps up to the plate and absolutely owns his scenes. Simmonds as Regan has definitely grown more comfortable in being the nucleus of the production, and while thankfully not just returning to the survivor’s guilt of the first film, her determination and strength as a presence on-screen is quite affecting. As for Jupe, he ends up basically in the same spot Blunt was last time, where he ends up in the most compromising positions (the way the film uses breath to heighten the dramatic stakes is quite clever) and needing to show inner strength by pushing through it and surviving.
Even the ending, which admittedly has the biggest similarity to the original, caps things off on a high note as it intertwines both character arcs in a powerhouse display of the next generation taking charge. Or maybe it’s just because, since I’ve started becoming more familiar with the works of Steve Albini, the idea of ear-piercing noise as the ultimate weapon against evil has become even more appealing to me than it did three years ago.
This is essentially the best-case scenario for a modern sequel, in that it is primed to please those who got into the first film, and brings just enough new ideas to the table to keep things fresh without completely losing the point of the whole exercise. Knowing how well Millicent Simmonds has been doing of late in terms of advocacy work (helping to design lip-read-friendly COVID masks), seeing her continue to kick eight kinds of arse on the big screen is very satisfying, and while I’m fairly certain that this will lead to another sequel, part of me is curious to see what else John Krasinski can pull off as a filmmaker. I mean, with this, he’s managed to properly corner the market for sense-driven horror cinema, so who knows what he could pull out of the hat next.
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