A Quiet Place II

The first film in the franchise, directed by John Krisinski of The Office, was an interesting concept. Unknown creatures(aliens?) Have decimated Earth's population, and if anyone is left, they have to be very quiet if they they want to survive.

A Quiet Place Part II, starts out with how things got to there. A Quiet little town, and Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) gets water and oranges for his family, nods to the store owner Rog that he's in a hurry as he watches the news report saying a bomb or something killed some people, and Lee takes off (without paying for the water and oranges) and we find out why everything is so quiet. There's a little league baseball game. We see all the Abbots including Beau who died in the first movie. They have friends who's son is on the team too, the father is Emmett (Played by a bearded trucker cap wearing Cillian Murphy) Then something comes out of the sky and everyone leaves and the monsters attacks and people go crazy.

Now cue to today. After Lee sacrifices himself and saves his family, The Abbotts have to move on. So Evelyn grabsd her oxygen tank for the newest baby to keep it sedated, some other supplies and and a shotgun as the basement of the house fills with water and the barn is on fire. Regan the deaf girl, grabs the guitar amplifier and microphone to blast feedback at the monsters, along with Marcus the boy they leave for new location. Evelyn the mother trips an bottle alarm and they have to hurry but Marcus gets caught in a bear trap, and his screams of agony brings on the aliens/monsters and they have to rush for safety when they are saved by a mysterious person. It turns out to be Emmett. He has a small place in an abandoned factory in the basement with a sound proof boiler compartment where they rest up and bound Marcus wound.

Emmett says there are others out there and they are not worth saving even as he tells them they cannot stay with him. Yet he eventually helps find Regan the girl as she wanders off to try her plan, that of finding the source of the radio station that plays Beyond The Sea every night believing it be a signal that there is an island where the Survivors are living, as the creatures are apparently not good swimmers and cannot see through water.

This is where things get interesting as John Krasinski, who is directing by himself this time around, creates three separate plots happening at the same time. One is where Emmett and Regan find a boat but must fend off other Survivors who are preventing them from stealing that boat. The second, Evelyn goes off to find medicine for Marcus injury and oxygen she uses for the baby while storing it in a box to keep it from crying loudly. She runs into trouble with the creatures on arrival at the factory and has to try to get back in. The third is Marcus who is looking after the baby while his mother is away, and while the oxygen is running out on the tank, the baby is covered up in the box, in the soundproof room, Marcus decides to go looking around the factory ends up making noise and must get back to the sound proof room but he ends up locking himself inside with no way to get out and oxygen is being used up.

These competing narratives provide the suspense and keeps you watching, even when you think you know what might happen.

Then it changes. As Emmett and Regan find the Island and talk to a man, credited as "Man On Island" played by Djon Hounsou, playing the token black guy in every horror movie is sacrificed after he hands over the keys to the radio station just In time before he is attacked and killed.

Here we then again have competing narratives. As Emmett and Reganntty to get into the radio station to broadcast feedback to fight back the creatures and kill them after distracting them and the second one is Marcus and his mother back at the Factory trying to fend off the creatures who are now at the door of the sound proof room.

This is what irks me about the movie. Taken as a whole, the movie is entertaining enough however, it still can't get past using the odd cliche in every horror movie. For instance Emmett and Regan hiding behind radio equipment and the monsters peeking between a crack in the equipment as it stalks the studio, reminiscent of every monster movie since Jurassic Park or is it an homage?? The aforementioned Djon Hounsou, being African American dies as his use is no longer needed in the movie. Thirdly the creature which is somehow supposed to be afraid of water follows them to the Island with the Survivors, not to mention its a weak plot device as reminiscent of the M Night Shyamalan directed Signs where the Aliens are these scary creatures yet they can't through a locked door in a house.

What mostly stand out In this movie to me is that we are two movies in and we still have no explanation of what these creatures are, why they are there in the first place, where they are from, except some vague idea they are perhaps aliens became they came out of a black lining of cloud in the sky?

Maybe they're saving that for A Quiet Place III??

At this point, the scares in this movie aren't that scary, the tension and suspense is pretty mild. I found this movie has diminishing returns over the first movie I give this movie

2 1/2 stars out of 5