Quiet Place Part 2

Let’s start with the obvious question: “Is it as good as the first one?” No. It is not. But that said, it’s still probably worth seeing.

The second foray doesn’t quite meet the former because the first one came out of nowhere and to see “Jim from the Office” direct one of the most intense, significant, and innovative suspense/horror movies in years was a surprise. The movie opened by boldly demonstrating that heroes aren’t safe and, in this world, everyone must constantly be silent. As a result, the movie’s setting was stunningly silent, claustrophobic, and intense. Making the most of limitations — essentially five sets — proved to be spur for star-revealing turns by Blunt, Krasinski, and Millicent Simmonds, who portrayed their daughter.

If two words captured the “feel” of the film and what made its brand of horror so special they are: “claustrophobic” and “silent.”

After the end of the first film, the story begged that the survivors head out into the world and tell what they discovered: that there is a way to beat the monsters and it’s in the hands of this small group.

Unfortunately, this story necessity breaks the claustrophobia and moves the experience from being a sole standout to being another in a generic class. This edition is closer to Netflix’s Stranger Things than a spiritual heir to Part I. Is that fatal or a reason not to see it? I don’t think so.

Accordingly, the survivors make a trek away from their farmstead in an adorable upstate New York hamlet and, before long, encounter another lone survivor who sums up the situation as

• the world they knew is indeed dead
• the human survivors are strange, warped and deadly
• oh, and the monsters, they’re strange, warped, and deadly as well

In several scenes watching echolocating monsters while post-civilizational humans threatned the people we liked recalled The Last of Us video game series.

With these stakes set, the characters head in three different directions. If there was any magic to the Part I it’s that no one could get very far, but in this film they get real far from each other. One character has to do a supplies run, the other is duty-bound to carry news of the counter-attack strategy, and the last is left to hold down the fort. While each sub-journey gets a decent amount of screen time and culminates in moments of intensity, they felt performative and like they were introduced for no compelling reason except that “well, this is a movie.”

The primary cast addition to Part II is Cillian Murphy who is the last of a family and is holed up in a rusted industrial site. He’s appropriately gruff, but we know that he has a heart of gold. Seeing him arching back regarding a morning sky was a fun callback to “28 Days Later” and a reminder that Murphy’s no stranger to this kind of fare. As ever, he’s witty, committed, and provides some of the film’s greatest sense of pathos. Coming from Part I, we know there were horrible decisions made in order to survive, but by ellipsis, Murphy lets us know some of the private horrors he’s faced, “dealt with,” and is now haunted by. Keen observers will recognize some misfits between his account and what we see presented onscreen.

As in the previous edition, the film leans heavily on Emily Blunt, but less well. She’s wonderful, full stop. But with the storyline split three ways, we don’t get to see her do what she does so well: silently filling giant screens and expressing pain, fear, determination, and triumph with only her eyes and her jaw’s set.

I see no reason for a Part III to not exist. With a planned release in the middle of the pandemic it was shelved for a year and it appears it was well-received. I see no reason for this series to not resolve back into a trilogy. But as the world grows ever-wider, I can’t help the feeling that we’ll be moving away from what made Part I so very special. I don’t know whether that’s even avoidable, but I hope they try.

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