A Quiet Place Part II (15)
Directed by John Krasinski
⭑⭑⭑⭑

MORE than a year after it was supposed to be released, John Krasinski’s long-awaited sequel to his outstanding and thrilling debut family horror is finally seeing the light of day, with — what a difference 14 months makes — the film now tapping into our own hideous experiences of the pandemic and how we view the world.

After a terrifying prelude outlining the arrival of the alien creatures, the film picks up from where the last one left off. Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) and her children (Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) are forced to leave their home and venture into the unknown outside, soon realising that monsters hunting by sound are not the only threats they face.

They meet up with a former friend Emmett (a phenomenal Cillian Murphy) who is now a shadow of his old self and is reluctant to take them in — particularly as they include a crying baby; putting the newborn in a soundproof box with an oxygen mask on is both genius and horrifying.

Writer-director Krasinski very skilfully opens up this apocalyptic future just enough to show us the effects on society while maintaining the hair-raising tension and fear, with plenty of jump-scares thrown in.

People are suspicious, insular, feral and territorial. It is a case of each man, woman and child for themselves. Unwittingly it reflects what we have all been feeling and undergoing with Covid-19.

With minimal dialogue the use of sound and silence is again deployed to stunning, heart-stopping effect. Blunt gives another powerhouse performance as a woman in survival-mum mode, while Simmonds steals the film as her rebellious deaf daughter, putting her life on the line to find sanctuary for survivors that she believes will save her family.

This is Krasinki’s second love letter to his children, which contains the same emotional depths and amount of terror as his original film, and shows that it wasn’t just a one-hit wonder.

Maria Duarte
In cinemas