MOVIE REVIEW – Hush! If they hear you, they’ll eat you up. A Quiet Place Part II by John Krasinski continues the principle of the first opus. Emily Blunt reprises her role as a mother trying not to end up in the stomachs of aliens with very keen hearing and a huge appetite.

After having surprised with the first A Quiet Place, John Krasinski succeeds in signing an almost perfect sequel. Everyday gestures are once again a source of terror, but this time, intimacy gives way to grand spectacle with a film that extends the universe glimpsed a few years earlier. If the dialogues are still scarce, they are always carefully written, never useless, and served by high-flying actors. Generous, well constructed and damn well acted, A Quiet Place Part II revives the tension of the first episode while offering great spectacle and cold sweats. Enough to silence those who doubted the necessity of a second film, and to make them hope that A Quiet Place will become a trilogy.

Bigger

After A Quiet Place, which was almost exclusively set on a farm, John Krasinski thinks bigger. Like James Cameron’s Aliens, this sequel is more action-oriented and expands the horrific universe of the first film to reveal other aspects. If this sequel benefits from much more means, its creator uses them with care, and even allows himself the luxury of going back to the basics of his story to better reveal its spectacular genesis.

If for some, the first film was enough on its own, ending on a final point that was more of a perfect conclusion than a cliffhanger, its success allowed John Krasinski to be offered the opportunity to develop the universe he had given birth to.

Back in front of the camera for a flashback depicting the first day of the apocalypse caused by the arrival of the creatures that stalk everything that makes noise, the Jim of The Office understood that it was now necessary to renew himself and propose something new, now that his protagonists have discovered the way to fight effectively against the creatures that stalk them.

Initiation

This time, the claustrophobic atmosphere gives way to an initiatory adventure story with more action sequences, but it doesn’t forget to make the spectator stress and tremble, especially by catching him off guard.   Not taking the easy way out by picking up exactly where the first film left off, John Krasinski sets the tone from the start by throwing his audience into a spectacular sequence that is as tense as it is unexpected. After that, the tension will not subside until the end credits.

In order to keep the rhythm, the director has divided his story in three. We go from one narrative arc to the other while holding our breath throughout this epic in a world where death can happen at any moment. And when the end comes, we no longer wonder if a sequel is necessary, but rather when it will be seen.

Well worth the wait

Deprived of a release because of the health crisis, A Quiet Place Part II was made to wait, John Krasinski having explained that he did not wish his film to be discovered on the small screen.  We have to admit that he was right: if the wait was long, the pleasure of discovering this film on the big screen is total.

-Zardoz-