One of my most eagerly anticipated films of 2020 was the follow up to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, which smashed it at the box office and became an instant classic, even garnering praise from the King of Horror himself, Stephen King. Although it was the right thing to do, the postponement of A Quiet Place Part II‘s release date meant we had to wait another year to find out if Krasinski could deliver yet another slam dunk.

One of the most intriguing aspects to the original film is the fact that we are thrown into a post-apocalyptic world without any understanding of what has happened or how, I mean we don’t even get a good look at the monsters until almost the very end of the film. This lack of understanding and awareness from the viewer’s perspective is one of the things that made A Quiet Place such a tense and suspenseful watch.

Part II starts with a flashback-prequel which gives us an insight into how the aliens arrived on Earth and the aftermath of the initial invasion. As well as giving us fans a bittersweet reunion with Krasinski’s Lee Abbott, it also serves as an opportunity to reintroduce us to the rest of the Abbott family and establish the introduction of Cillian Murphy as the family friend, Emmett. The fast-paced action is a great way for Krasinski to ease his audience back into his universe before the nail-biting silent tension that made the first film so special returns with full force. 

The main storyline is an immediate continuation of the first film. Still reeling from a traumatic birth, the death of her husband, Lee, and their discovery of how to defeat the aliens, Evelyn leads the children into the unknown in search of shelter, food and supplies. Their journey leads them to the camp of Emmett (Cillian Murphy), an old family friend whose own suffering has hardened his heart to such a point that the Abbotts receive a cool and uninviting welcome to his home.

Desperate to avenge her father’s death and share her breakthrough, using the high frequency of her cochlear implant to weaken the aliens and expose chinks in their armour, Regan secretly sets off on her own to try and reach the source of a radio signal that could be the World’s salvation. With a newborn baby and her son, Marcus, unable to walk any further, Evelyn appeals to their reluctant host to find Regan and bring her back.

Despite her star quality and the incredibly raw and emotional performance she delivered in the first film, Emily Blunt takes something of a step back in Part II, instead the way is paved for breakout star, Millicent Simmonds to take the lead and I think it’s fair to say that she takes the opportunity and runs with it. She effectively portrays Regan’s strength and tenacity inherited from her father, and her real-life deafness adds a layer of authenticity that enhances the emotional impact of the story.

Cillian Murphy, a dab hand at taking small(ish) characters add making them special, is a fantastic addition to Krasinski’s world. For me, when we first see Murphy’s Emmett he is balancing on a knife edge; slowly losing the love, compassion and sense of purpose that a family brings but not quite fallen to the sadistic primality demonstrated by others across the two films. And Murphy plays it brilliantly with a layered and nuanced performance that fills the hole left by Krasinski.

Despite a substantially bigger budget and the weight of the world’s expectations on his shoulder, John Krasinski resisted the urge to go too big. Yes, we see a lot more of the noise-averse aliens but it is still a tightly woven universe with a focus on its characters and their relationships with each other.

Overall, A Quiet Place Part II doesn’t quite live up to the high standard set by its predecessor but, let’s be honest, that was going to be a near impossible task anyway. That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy this instalment although the story itself still feels a little unfinished, ideally we need a third and final film to round everything off.