I wasn’t really that impressed by the first Quiet Place if I’m honest. I appreciated its original premise but I thought the characters were a bit dull and didn’t really go anywhere. Fortunately I cannot say the same for its sequel as A Quiet Place Part 2 is a much more powerful experience with its better written characters and even better horror.

After surviving a deadly assault from blind but sound-sensitive creatures, the Abbott family abandon their ruined home and venture into the outside world, unaware that alien creatures are not the only dangers that await them.

The Characters

The characters’ goals in Part 2 aren’t as abstract as they are in Part 1. Sticking together and staying alive aren’t the Abbotts’ only concern. During their travels beyond the farm, Regan discovers a radio transmission being broadcast from a nearby island. She’s determined to go there but her brother Marcus wants to stay put and make sure the family is ok.

The film diverges into two plots, one tracking Regan’s journey to the island, the other showing Marcus defend the rest of the family. Distance may separate these plots but thematically they’re the same. In the absence of their father, Evelyn, their mother, has to maintain and defend the family but with a new baby to care for, she has to hand over more responsibility to her children. It’s these responsibilities and the independence that comes with them that Regan and Marcus fight to uphold.

Their arcs in Part 2 are clearer and more defined than theirs in the original, every tense encounter they have with the creatures or other threats forces them to take a stand and defend themselves. Each time the threat is greater and they have to become stronger. It’s more engaging than the on-and-off drama that happens through the first film, it’s good stuff.

The Horror

At no point does Part 2 respond to one of my biggest complaints of A Quiet Place and establish the hearing range of the creatures but in hindsight, it’s not vital. The point is you don’t know how far away they are hence making a noise and potentially attracting one is not worth the risk.

The jump scares are on point, used a lot but spread out between agonising periods of silence. Just as affective as they are in the original.

Regan and Marcus’s journeys to independence are as terrifying as they are engaging. Out of their comfort zone, in unfamiliar terrain, the adolescents are put in positions where they are alone, trapped and extremely vulnerable. There are sequences that will make you squirm, cringe and hiss ‘shhhhh’ at the screen. Part 2 absolutely tops the original in terms of tension and suspense.

I’d never put it up there with Aliens or The Empire Strikes Back but A Quiet Place Part 2 is certainly worth considering when thinking of a case study for good sequels. Its characters are better, its pacing is better, its horror is better. It expanded the world the first film established creatively and gracefully and it’s made me excited for Part 3. I’d highly recommend it.

I give A Quiet Place Part 2 a strong 8 out of 10.