Featuring meticulous sound design and superb cinematography with crisp images, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II is an accomplished sequel to the 2018 hit about a family struggling to survive amid a deadly alien invasion. The film’s lethal antagonists — who hunt humans based on surrounding noises that clue their search — and themes of displacement and family separation give A Quiet Place Part II  a pandemic feel, even if it was filmed in 2019 (it was originally slated for a March 2020 release, when the incoming pandemic jump-started a series of lockdowns and film delays). 

Set after the death of Krasinski’s Lee Abbott, A Quiet Place Part II continues the story of the widow Evelyn (a sympathetic Emily Blunt) and her children — Marcus (a fearful Noah Jupe) and Regan (an excellent Millicent Simmons) — who grapple with a tarnished world approximately 400 days after the alien invasion. The family stumbles upon an older familiar friend Emmett (a sincere Cillian Murphy), unmentioned in the original. Emmett’s subterranean lifestyle is for survival, and a key hiding spot within the underground space is a large furnace, a frequent site for intense sequences. 

With the assertive Regan wanting to use her father’s strategy to combat the aliens, the deaf teenager searches for the origin of a mysterious radio signal and plans to find its source to send out a high pitched noise, the most effective weapon to weaken the creatures outside of shotgun bullets. As Regan and Emmett search for the origins of the signal, Evelyn and Marcus stay back in the bunker, anxiously awaiting the fate of the other two as they scrape to obtain medical supplies. 

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A Quiet Place Part II is confidently directed. The original made use of tight framing and innovated with its diegetic sound, jumping between the whispers of the family and the silent perceptions of Regan. In the sequel, the camera is freer, and though the sound design doesn’t innovate — viewers don’t experience Regan’s inaudible point of view as much — it’s still handled with grace and precision. From the first frame onward, the brittle, rich noise of bustling leaves and light footsteps are heard, emphasizing the life or death importance for characters to attend to noise. 

Cinematographer Polly Morgan’s camera zigs and zags in the action sequences. Characters skid in cars, swim underwater and climb ladders to escape the creatures, with their nimble movements akin to the precise, careful gestures of ballerinas and soldiers on no man’s land. The camera captures these subtleties while appreciating the image of the human face, taking advantage of limited light in scenes when the family is in the furnace and their eyes and mouths are displayed in painterly ways, highlighting the intricate mannerisms of each character.

Despite A Quiet Place Part II’s ability to effectively translate the characters’ experiences, there’s not much development of the story’s mythology (the aliens are not given a back story), and though Emmett is a strong addition, his presence feels like an add-on as opposed to a more organic insertion. 

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A Quiet Place Part II is still an effective thriller and tastefully set, with its greatest effect being how it metaphorically alludes to the current pandemic. Characters are afraid to go outside, families are broken up, fatalities grow and the opening scene informs audiences that the mysterious creatures were first spotted in China. A Quiet Place Part II and many critic reviews have shown the degree to which films are bound to be mediated through the COVID-19 pandemic, deepening their impact and cultural address. 

The opening weekend of A Quiet Place Part II will always be remembered alongside news of AMC, Regal and Cinemark lifting mask requirements for vaccinated customers. Like Regan and Emmett discover noisy crowds of people on an island, I too encountered the breakage of quietness before my screening. However, once the Paramount logo came, the boisterous crowd — and its consumption of popcorn and drinks — simmered down and all eyes focused on the screen. A Quiet Place Part II depicts quietness as a strength, and the film’s release shows that the quietness of the past year can be resolved through the mutable, powerful sensibilities of cinema. 

Mo Muzammal is a freelance film critic based in Southern California. His interests include Pakistani Cinema, Parallel Cinema and film theory.