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FILM REVIEW | A QUIET PLACE: PART 2

Back in 2018, John Krasinski forced the audience to feel the deadly silence A Quiet Place forced upon you. You wouldn't want A Quiet Place Part 2 to be a carbon copy of the first, so why not go all out and make this bigger, faster and louder, ready for the big screen experience while providing an tremendous result.





Written by Elliot Lines

The first sequence of A Quiet Place Part 2 is a short prequel, a small insight into "Day 1" of this invasion. Krasinski takes us back to a familiar location, the shop, showing us all the items we have seen up until this point. This town is a small community of people that are attending a softball game, until a burning asteroid like object fills the sky. What comes next is truly terrifying, and the way in which this sequence jumps through sound barriers, whether that be from the perspective of the general character or a deaf Regan Abbott (Millicent Simmonds), makes this all the more suspenseful.


We all know from A Quiet Place that making any sort of sound will most likely be the death of you, but imagine not being able to hear those sounds you're making. Millicent Simmonds, deaf herself, plays this role perfectly. Where it was touched on in the first film Part 2 really takes grip of her character and uses the complete silence to create even more tension throughout. We also get introduced to other characters such as Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who plays a survivor who knows the Abbott's from before the invasion. Murphy is outstanding as per usual, developing this character from a lone survivor to someone that starts to care for people again.

There are some truly terrifying moments with plenty of jump scare sequences throughout, but these would not be as effective if the creature design wasn't top tier. These creatures are fast and absolutely unforgiving, if there is a slightest hint you are there, you're a goner, there is no escape. One scene for example where Marcus Abbott (Noah Jupe) steps on a bear trap, letting out this piercing scream, Evelyn (Emily Blunt) knows this and has to force her son to be quiet or they all die. This scene wasn't the only one to do this, but it alone created so much tension due to what we know of these creatures. This is a real testament to the attention to detail, and where you certainly get plenty more action sequences than the first, this is definitely the showing you wanted to really see the impact these creatures have had on the world. But as all creatures, they have their weaknesses.


We know from the first film that these can be killed, and the story really in a mission to find a way to help everyone defeat these creatures, where many people would've lost hope, Regan Abbott has not, willing to put herself out there to go and share her discovery with as many people as possible. This leads to the kids being at the forefront throughout, developing their characters, where it might be Marcus looking after his mother and new born sibling or if its Regan going out to help the world, both of these characters develop immensely throughout the film.


Making a sequel as intense and unique as A Quiet Place was never going to happen, but the intensity ramps up throughout A Quiet Place Part 2 to build on this world and lay the foundations for future films. There was an air of concern about how this would turn out but the bigger and louder set pieces made for a great return to the cinema screen.


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