Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in “A Quiet Place Part II”.
Paramount Pictures
John Krasinski has once again blinded the critics.
The screenwriter’s follow-up feature to “A Quiet Place” from 2018 currently has a 91% “Fresh” rating for rotten tomatoes from 135 reviews.
“A Quiet Place Part II” is the highly anticipated sequel to Krasinski’s horror film, which introduced moviegoers to a world where deadly but blind creatures hunt based on sound only. It is distributed by Paramount Pictures.
The sequel, which begins right after the events of the first film, follows the Abbott family in search of a safe new home. But there are more dangers in the world than deadly aliens – namely, other survivors.
Critics seem to agree that Krasinski was in a difficult position to pursue the acclaimed first episode of “A Quiet Place”. After all, the film had a poetic, if devastating, ending.
However, it was a tempting win for Paramount to raise $ 340 million in tills worldwide from a budget of just $ 17 million.
Krasinski managed to keep the Abbott family’s emotional thread going throughout the sequel while expanding the universe of “A Quiet Place”.
His wife, actress Emily Blunt, returns as Evelyn Abbott, alongside deaf teenage actress Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott and a young English actor named Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott.
Here’s what critics thought of “A Quiet Place Part II” before it hit theaters on Friday.
Kristy Puchko, riot material
Krasinski’s new film is “an extremely frightening and satisfying sequel,” writes Kristy Puchko in her review for Riot Material.
“To be honest, it’s amazing how Krasinski has developed as a filmmaker,” she wrote. “He creates sequences that have the audience on the edge of their seats as he elaborates a story about family and loss that is deeply moving. It’s no wonder he compares himself to the early Spielberg, because with all the first-class fears and relentless tension this horror-thriller has to offer. The most exciting part is watching its characters develop. “
For Puchko, “A Quiet Place Part II” expands the world built in the first film and manages to deliver recalls to its predecessor, but also to break new ground.
“This fantastic follow-up offers accomplishments that have matured along with its young leads and done with compelling confidence,” she wrote.
Read the full review of Riot Material.
Millicent Simmonds stars in “A Quiet Place Part II”.
Paramount
Stephanie Zacharek, time
For Stephanie Zacharek, a Time writer, Krasinski’s sequel packed a lot more into the story than the first film, maybe too much more.
“The film is intelligently conceived, well acted, and well made,” she wrote. “But as with any sequel, it’s fixated on increasing the stakes and therefore being at a much higher level of stress. It never wears off, which for some viewers might be great fun, although its persistence also makes it tired.”
Zacharek praised the company’s sound design and called the film “complicated and technically perfect”.
The studio and Krasinski had insisted on holding onto the film until it could hit theaters instead of offering it over a streaming service. The result is an experience similar to that of the first film – a sense of fear and tension with even the slightest noise on the screen or in the cinema.
Read the full report from Time.
Chris Hewitt, Star Tribune
“I really liked the first ‘Quiet Place’ and was skeptical that Krasinski could outdo it, but I’m here to scream out loud that he did,” wrote Chris Hewitt in his review of the film for Star Tribune.
Hewitt also noted that Krasinski used tone, or rather silence, to indicate that the film was shifting into Regan’s perspective. The director shows how Regan uses her deafness to her advantage when fighting the monsters.
“The films that studios held onto for more than a year waiting for theatrical releases to make sense fell into a few categories: those with the impact that needed jumbo-sized screens. Those that should be big hits. And that was fantastic. “A quiet place: Part II,” which takes place exclusively in theaters, are all three, “he wrote.
Read the full review from the Star Tribune.
Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in “A Quiet Place Part II”.
Paramount
Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
While “A Quiet Place Part II” feels like “three-quarters of a very good movie cut from a whole,” Krasinski’s sequel is smart and resourceful, as are its characters, Leah Greenblatt said in her review for Entertainment Weekly.
“Once again, Krasinski manages to do relatively simple tasks – breastfeeding a baby, tune a radio, walk through a wagon – harrowing; dialogue is necessarily rarely wasted, and his actors feel much more personable and real than most meats . ” – Doll horror buddy, “wrote Greenblatt.
Greenblatt noted that the film ends fairly abruptly, but that the accomplished build-up of the world suggests that this will not be a one-off sequel, but rather the second film in a franchise.
Read the full report from Entertainment Weekly.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes.