A Quiet Place Part II

Beginning with how the alien invasion first began to right where the first film ended, A Quiet Place Part II is a superb sequel to the 2018 original. While John Krasinski only briefly reprises his role just as the invasion started, he does come back to direct and write. Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe do return as the rest of the Abbott family with Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou joining the cast. After figuring out a way to defeat the noise based aliens using audio feedback from a hearing aid but with their home in ruins, the Abbotts must find other survivors in order to get word out about the monsters' weakness. They end up finding Murphy's Emmett, an old friend of the Abbotts from before the attacks, who has lost his family and become so despondent that he doesn't want to help anybody. The Abbotts soon learn of a radio signal playing a song that gets repeated which Regan, the deaf daughter, believes is a message to sanctuary. With her brother injured and infant sibling in toe, Regan goes against her mother's wishes and sets out to investigate with Emmett reluctantly helping her. As the two find an island safe from the aliens due to their inability to swim, the rest of Regan's family must find ways to survive while looking for supplies. While most sequels tend to put a lot more than what the first one did, this film does the smart move of focusing more on the story and build up its characters rather than bigger action scenes with huge explosions. The effects for the aliens and the chaos they cause is just as important and well thought out as the performances by the cast and the characters' actions. Just like the first, the use of sound is once again used in such a way that you feel your heart skip a beat anytime something even remotely noisy happens. It really helps that since Regan has a lot more focus this time around there are great transitions between regular volume and near deafness and through that the horror is amplified as she doesn't notice the danger coming at her. The minimal score is just enough to amplify the sheer terror and used sparingly and not when you don't want it. Polly Morgan's cinematography isn't nothing too special, but when it comes to scenes set in the dark, it's just as beautiful as the scenes set outside in the day. If there are complaints it's that while the slow pace is methodical, it does often hinder with some drawn out scenes here and there. Irregardless, A Quiet Place Part II is not just a well made sequel, but a movie that stands on its own thanks to the cast and crew. Over all: 98%

2021 top list so far:

1. Nobody

2. A Quiet Place Part II

3. Raya and the Last Dragon

4. Wrath of Man