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Krasinski minimises the gore to avoid a more restrictive rating, but even though Part II’s horror isn’t particularly bloody, it’s still blood-curdling. Polly Morgan’s richly melancholy 35mm photography and production designer Jess Gonchor’s grimly devastated locales only accentuate the picture’s gnawing unease. The prologue’s sustained intensity, mercilessly illustrating how the Abbotts’ idyllic small town was destroyed, sets the tone, and although the rest of Part II isn’t as consistently harrowing, Krasinski keeps the level of dread high in between unveiling other nerve-wracking alien encounters. Part II opens with a bravura flashback chronicling the day that the extra-terrestrials invaded Earth.
He reluctantly agrees to help them when Regan becomes convinced that a distant radio station broadcasting ’Beyond The Sea’ is signalling the whereabouts of other survivors. They soon find the hideout of Emmett (Murphy), a neighbour who has lost his entire family. Part II follows mother Evelyn (Blunt), Regan, brother Marcus (Noah Jupe) and and their newborn brother as they venture off on foot seeking safe haven, staying completely quiet so as not to attract the predators’ attention. The original ended with Lee Abbott’s (Krasinski) death and his family’s discovery that the frequency given off by Regan’s (Simmonds) cochlear implant repels the aliens. Reviews should be glowing, bolstering audience expectations: A Quiet Place may have been surprise hit, but Part II won’t sneak up on anyone.
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Emily Blunt returns for the sequel, joined by Cillian Murphy as a fellow survivor. Initially slated for release in March 2020, just as the pandemic took hold, Part II hits US screens May 28 before arriving in the UK on June 3. Part II can be read as a coming-of-age story as well as a portrait of mourning, and Krasinski masterfully weaves those sentiments into a monstrously scary framework Writer-director John Krasinski has devised nerve-shredding sequences, and the novelty of lethal aliens with poor eyesight but an incredible sense of hearing hasn’t faded - the silences remain chilling. Expanding its world slightly without losing sight of the elements that made the original so effective, this superb piece of mainstream horror filmmaking is bolstered by some terrific performances, most notably Millicent Simmonds as a deaf daughter assuming the role of family protector in the wake of her father’s death. A Quiet Place Part II proves to be an even fiercer and more emotional experience than the first instalment.