Krasinski's 'Quiet Place' sequel chills as suspense-filled survival drama
“A Quiet Place Part II” - ★ ★ ★ ½
No way could writer/director/star John Krasinski have knowingly created his horror sequel “A Quiet Place Part II” as a perfect allegory for the 2020 pandemic.
The movie was completed long before its original March 2020 release date. Yet, just as the Communist Red Scare fueled the thematic flames of fright in the 1956 science-fiction classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the coronavirus infects “Quiet Place Part II” with its own nasty brand of zeitgeisty angst.
Consider what happens early in the movie, a flashback to “Day One,” when the Abbott family, led by Lee and Evelyn (Krasinski and Emily Blunt), enjoys a short-lived, small-town baseball game in which son Marcus (an expressive Noah Jupe) nervously tries to hit a homer.
The Norman Rockwell atmosphere instantly fades when an ominous meteorite cuts through the sky and crashes in the distance.
In a flash, the world changes, invaded by sightless, insectlike beasties programmed to destroy anything they hear with their natural supersonic receptors.
Overnight, people around the globe become forced to replace what they WANT to do (socialize, sing, dance, talk and go places) with what they MUST do to save themselves and their loved ones from horrible deaths.
So, the chilling appeal of “Part II” extends way beyond its diabolical jump-scares and carefully constructed atmospheric suspense.
At the same time, Krasinski doesn't mess with the success of “Part 1” by adding bigger, splashier effects or Marvel movie-level spectacle.
He does promote Millicent Simmonds, playing the Abbotts' deaf daughter Regan, into a co-leading role with Blunt's stalwart mother, a shrewd improvement that preserves the surprising intimacy of the original thriller while twisting our expectations.
The present story picks up on Day 474 soon after “Part 1” ended, with an emotionally and physically wounded Evelyn struggling to keep Regan, Marcus and her newborn baby safe. (Fortunately, her exceedingly quiet infant doesn't suffer from cholic.)
We meet good neighbor Emmett (Cillian Murphy) at the baseball game. He returns later in the story as a key player in helping the Abbotts while shouldering the devastating loss of his family to the creatures.
“A Quiet Place Part II” has no ending. It just stops, but in a good way that leaves us curiously satisfied, yet demanding an answer to our collective question, “So, what happens next?”
Before the non-ending, Krasinski splits his story into three simultaneous, crisply edited, nail-biter subplots, each involving Abbott family members encountering the creatures, accompanied by Marco Beltrami's skin-crawling score pumped with ominous noises and jittery notes.
We still don't know what the aliens eat, or if they are pack predators or solitary hunters. (Here, they are both, depending on when Krasinski needs an Abbott to kill a creature, and can realistically handle one, but not two or three.)
If the aliens attack every noise they hear, why don't they go crazy fighting waterfalls. Do they freak out during thunderstorms?
You don't ask these questions, because for 97 well-packed minutes, this sharply produced thriller immerses us in a big-screen experience that has us leaving the theater very ... very ... quietly.
Just in case.
Starring: Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, John Krasinski
Directed by: John Krasinski
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for violence. 97 minutes