quiet place 2 christian movie review

A Quiet Place Part II

Reviewed by: Alexander Malsan CONTRIBUTOR

Check back later for review coming from contributor Alexander Malsan

A brave cohesive family fighting vicious alien monsters

What does the Bible say about intelligent life on other planets? Answer

Are we alone in the universe? Answer

Does Scripture refer to life in space? Answer

What does it take to survive in a very dangerous world situation?

Keeping one’s children safe

Self-sacrifice

Strong, unwavering family LOVE / What is true Christian love? Answer

FEAR, Anxiety and Worry —What does the Bible say? Answer

About despair and hope

“Silence is not enough”

WARNING! If you haven’t seen the first Quiet Place film, there are spoilers ahead.

S hortly after the events of “A Quiet Place,” the Abbott family (Emily, Marcus and Regan) are left with very few choices as to what to do with their lives after the death of Emily’s beloved husband, Lee. With very few resources remaining and with the knowledge of how to defend themselves and defeat the alien creatures, the Abbott family leaves their homestead on a quest for the other survivors. After all, as Emily ( Emily Blunt ) states, “There are people still worth saving.”

Along the route, the Abbott family runs into Emily’s brother-in-law Emmett ( Cillian Murphy ). While seeking refuge with Emmet, he informs his family that much of the world they know is gone and that those who are left are not the type of people you want to save (in other words, they’ve become very hostile towards the world and strangers). Emily takes this advice into consideration, as her first priority is her family, and the creatures they encounter are getting smarter every day, so venturing out isn’t the easiest option. As for Marcus and Regan however…

Marcus agrees with his Uncle Emmett. Regan, however, knows EXACTLY how to defeat these creatures, by increasing the frequency of her cochlear implant, amplifying it and aiming the sound at the creatures. Of course, her mother would never let her venture out on her own, and Marcus says he won’t support her sister on this, so Regan decides to sneak out and find someone who will help her defeat these creatures, once and for all.

In a recent interview with review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, Director John Krasinki revealed (and I’m paraphrasing)…

“[After] the first movie I truly never thought there would be a sequel. I don’t think anybody thought there would be a sequel, I don’t think the studio thought there was going to be a sequel. I didn’t want to do a second one because of the success of the first one. As corny as it sounds, I only wanted to do a second one if I could pull off the level of trust and respect the audience gave me. If I can find a way to return that level of respect and trust, I’ll do it…”

I respect his candor and appreciation for the cinematic arts and what makes for good filmmaking. Krasinski may still be new in Hollywood, but it feels like he takes time to know his audience BEFORE creating his product, and it shows.

While “A Quiet Place” emphasized the dread of silence and the type of fear that can instill, Part II’s primary focus is on what happens when the blindfold is off and you have to face a fearful foe. There’s plenty of intense moments of genuine uncertainty and anxiety, as the fear of the unknown still lurks around the corner in this film. Viewers may still feel like hiding with every step the Abbot family takes on the sanded path, whispering to themselves, “Please don’t step on a loud branch.” One never knows what element in an everyday scene is going to be the one that sends the aliens racing over in a matter of seconds. The tension is a testament to both the actors and Krasinki.

While in the first film the focus was on Emily and Lee, this time it is more of Regan’s story. Millicent Simmonds (who plays Regan) is a commanding young actress who shines in every scene she’s in. She drives the narrative, but not in the way some may expect. Her struggles don’t define her, they encourage her to press forward and she uses that to her advantage on screen. Even Cillian Murphy, who later joins her journey, is just along for the ride.

Last, but certainly not least, the film’s soundtrack is one of its defining features. The music is a prominent player in a good way. It flows evenly with the rhythm of the story.

What could be improved in this sequel? I think the overall pacing of the film. The first movie had a much more even pacing where, even when it was quiet, the action was a little more evenly placed. Also, I would have liked to see a little more character development in Part II, particularly with regards to the brother-sister relationship between Marcus and Regan; that relationship could prove valuable in Part III (who knows?).

Objectionable Material

Violence: The violence in Part II is much heavier, most of it in the form of the alien creatures attacking humans. People are dragged off screaming or tossed around by these creatures or killed (usually brief moments though). One person is stabbed on a pole by one of the creatures. The creatures are seen attacking cars as well. One particularly disturbing scene (I really wasn’t a fan of) is when a young character gets their foot caught in a bear trap. We can hear the child screaming and his foot bloodied. We also hear the child scream when antiseptic is poured onto the wound. Creatures are seen lit on fire and shot by shotguns and other weapons which result in seeing their insides and pools of blood. A man is seen struggling underwater with a noose around his neck. A character is pierced in the leg. We also witness some dead creatures and human corpses (some decomposed). A metal rod is driven into an alien’s head.

When Regan is asked why she is going to risk her own life to get help to fight the creatures, knowing full well that it’s extremely dangerous, she says, “Because it’s what Dad would do.”

For a follower of Christ, what is LOVE —a feeling, an emotion, or an action? Answer

How far would we go to protect the ones we love? I would hope to the ends of the Earth. Our Lord and Savior , Jesus Christ , sure did. He risked his own life, was spit on, mocked, tortured and crucified on a cross for us sinners, even for those who did not know Him. That’s love. That’s unconditional true love .

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Mark 10:45

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life . For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” —John 3:16-17

“But he was wounded for our transgressions ; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” —Isaiah 53:5

“By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” —Colossians 2:14

And, on this Memorial Day, when we thank and honor those who have served and continue to serve and protect and lay down their lives for us, remember this…

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” —John 15:13-17

Final Thoughts

“A Quiet Place Part II” is a film that feels like a “thank you for your continued support” from Krasinki and it shows. While nothing quite beats the original, this one comes pretty close, and it shows that the thriller genre is not dead and that some films, truly, are best left for the theaters.

While the film’s violence is bit heavier this time around, it doesn’t necessarily detract from the film, nor does it warrant strong caution. I would say, ultimately, the choice lies with you. However, if you plan on going I recommend you watch Part I first, and leave the children at home.

• Violence: Very Heavy— with blood and gore
• Profane language: Moderate— • “J*sus Chr*st” (1) • G*d d*mn (1) • “ h*ll ” (1)
• Vulgar/Crude language: Mild— • 2 S-words (4)
• Nudity: None
• Drugs/Alcohol: • a character uses some vodka as an antiseptic for a wound • a character grabs some prescription medication from a store to help fight an infection
• Occult: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

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‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Review: Silent Beginnings

The chills are more effective than the thrills in this prequel to the “A Quiet Place” franchise.

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By Elisabeth Vincentelli

The cat. It’s all about the cat.

No matter what else happens in “A Quiet Place: Day One,” no matter how sensational Lupita Nyong’o is — and she is — her character’s feline buddy is going to take over the story and, likely, the discourse around it.

Mind you, there also was a cat, Jones, in “Alien,” a movie that’s a major influence on the “Quiet Place” universe — one in which aliens land on Earth and massacre everybody for no reason besides sheer killing instinct. John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” (2018) and “A Quiet Place Part II” (2021) laid down the basic parameters, mainly that the creatures’ extremely developed hearing makes up for their blindness, and they hate bodies of water.

But Jones was peripheral to “Alien,” the masterpiece that kicked off a franchise revolving around body invasion. Our fearless new hero is very much embedded in the theme running through all three “Quiet Place” movies: the importance of family, whether biological or chosen.

In Michael Sarnoski’s prequel, Frodo (played by both Nico and Schnitzel) is the support cat of Samira (Nyong’o), a New York City poet living in crippling cancer-induced pain in a hospice. She takes Frodo everywhere, including an outing to a puppet show, where the audience members include a man (Djimon Hounsou) whom viewers of the second movie will instantly recognize. When the invasion begins, he is quick to impart the importance of making as little noise as possible to avoid alerting the attackers.

Somehow borne on meteorites (don’t ask), the aliens immediately get down to their gruesome business. The movie allows us a few good looks at the toothy monsters, who made me think of hellish Giacometti sculptures. But otherwise Sarnoski (who made the endearing Nicolas Cage drama “Pig” ) does not add all that much crucial new information to their basic character sheet — “Day One” is refreshingly free of origin story explaining.

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A Quiet Place: Day One is a Surprisingly Soulful Apocalypse Movie

The prequel to A Quiet Place goes in unexpected and emotionally rewarding directions.

A Quiet Place: Day One begins with a bang, quite literally. When the ailing Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) and her hospice group are brought on an outing to New York City, they are at ground zero for an invasion of bloodthirsty aliens who land in a fiery shower of meteors. What isn’t destroyed by the meteors are ripped apart by the aliens, who immediately begin to attack anything that makes noise.

It’s a spectacular, horrifying opening setpiece — one that was promised, after all, in the title of the film itself: Day One . A prequel to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place , Day One lives up to its premise of showing the first 24 hours of an alien invasion that kicks off a silent apocalypse where humans live in fear of monsters with super-sensitive hearing. But once the dust settles and an eerie quiet sets in over the city, Day One transforms into a truly singular blockbuster movie that sheds the immersive spectacle of the first movie in favor of something more tender and wistful. It’s an unusual approach for a movie that had been billed as the first part of a world-building initiative for a franchise that seemed like it would have difficulty expanding beyond its gimmick. But director Michael Sarnoski, whose debut feature Pig was also a disarmingly soulful twist on the revenge flick, uses the film’s apocalyptic setting to tell a sweet, humanist story of companionship and loss at the end of the world.

Now that the novelty of A Quiet Place has long passed, Day One gives us the novelty of a bustling city like New York gone completely silent.

A Quiet Place: Day One opens with Nyong’o’s Sam begrudgingly participating in a group therapy session at her hospice, where she is being treated for a severe type of cancer. Sam is an acerbic and bitter loner, who has to be tricked into going on an outing to New York City by her nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff), the closest person she has to a friend. But she eventually relents at the prospect of getting pizza in the city. Their outing is, of course, cut short by the terrifying attack of the aliens, who cut a bloody swath through the city, leaving only the survivors who were quick to catch on to their hearing-sensitivity quirk. After getting saved by Djimon Hounsou’s Henri — the lone cameo connecting Day One to the greater Quiet Place universe — Sam and her emotional support cat Frodo embark on a deeply personal odyssey through New York City in search of that pizza (there’s an emotionally resonant reason for it, don’t worry). Along the way, she reluctantly gains a traveling companion in Eric (Joseph Quinn, wonderfully vulnerable), a terrified law student with whom she forms a deep and intimate connection.

The conceit of A Quiet Place — you have to be really quiet or you DIE — is not quite as strict in Day One , nor can you expect it to be. The immediate death sentence of making a noise in the previous films isn’t quite as harsh in Day One , with Sam and Eric making a fair few narrow escapes thanks to fast reflexes or lucky breaks. This is the first part of an invasion that renders the whole world into a silent post-apocalyptic landscape, and the film plays out like a pretty standard alien invasion movie. Sarnoski doesn’t have quite the same handle on the kind of immersive action that Krasinski displayed in the first two Quiet Place movies, and it shows: the jumpscares are mostly by-the-book, and the film’s most tense moments are nothing we haven’t seen in horror before. The handful of setpieces littered throughout the film are not without their hair-raising thrills, but Sarnoski doesn’t seem as interested in playing out the “keep quiet” gimmick of the other Quiet Place movies.

Djimon Honsou’s brief appearance is the rare bit of world-building that Day One offers.

Instead, the film focuses more on the novelty of a bustling city like New York — which an opening text card states “operates at 90 decibels… the sound of a human scream” — going completely silent. There are long stretches of the film which are just Sam silently walking through the city, observing the quiet beauty of an abandoned basketball court, picking up used books scattered on the sidewalk, or wandering through a bar that held precious memories of her life. Cinematographer Pat Scola bathes these quiet moments in a warm, naturally-lit glow, with Sarnoski mostly operating in extreme wide shots — showing the city in its vast emptiness — or in intense close-ups of Nyong’o’s beautifully expressive face. It’s as if the movie is not interested in the stakes of the apocalypse, or the lore of these monsters — any bit of worldbuilding is done almost begrudgingly, in short spurts, as if Sarnoski received a studio note to include some bit of mythology-building, and dumps it in a throwaway line or a fleeting scene between character moments.

Instead, it’s the intimate character moments that are the real focus of the movie, with the budding relationship between Sam and Eric becoming the lovely focal point of the film. Brought together by Frodo ( who proves to be a surprisingly resilient, almost supernaturally relaxed, cat), their dynamic plays out almost like a silent romance, with Day One transforming into something of a wistful rom-com set at the end of the world. It’s a wholly unexpected direction for this film to go, but a pleasant one, and speaks to the trust that Sarnoski was given to execute his version of a blockbuster film: one that’s not beholden to lore or mythology, but simply to showing its characters in this unique apocalyptic landscape.

The real focus of Day One is the relationship between Sam and Eric.

Fans of the first A Quiet Place , who are expecting another breathlessly tense sci-fi horror film, are likely to be disappointed by a blockbuster as reflective and, well, quiet as this. Day One bucks the expectations for what a Quiet Place movie, and really a blockbuster film, should be, and instead delivers something much more moving and poignant. It’s a terrific synthesis of an arthouse director’s vision with franchise filmmaking, and the result is a soulful blockbuster unlike any of its contemporaries.

A Quiet Place: Day One opens in theaters June 28.

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A Quiet Place: Day One First Reviews: A Tense, Surprisingly Tender Thriller Anchored by Fantastic Performances

Critics say michael sarnoski's horror prequel isn't quite as terrifying as its predecessors, but it makes up for it with stellar character work from lupita nyong'o and joseph quinn, as well as a scene-stealing cat..

TAGGED AS: Horror , movies

Did we need a prequel/spinoff of A Quiet Place following all new characters through the silence-focused alien-invasion apocalypse? Well, you could just as easily ask whether or not we need any original movies in the first place. Fortunately, according to the first reviews of A Quiet Place: Day One , the third installment of the franchise justifies its existence with a thrilling trip through a decimated Manhattan. It may not be as scary as the first two movies, but for some, that’s not a bad thing. It also may not be as epic as expected for this kind of film. But critics mostly agree that it works as another character drama from Pig writer-director Michael Sarnoski and particularly thanks to the performances by leads Lupita Nyong’o , Joseph Quinn , and a cat named Frodo.

Here’s what critics are saying about A Quiet Place: Day One:

Is this a worthy addition to the franchise?

A Quiet Place: Day One is another excellent installment in the franchise, delivering the tense set pieces you’d expect, but also with an emotional core that you might not. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

This is a prequel done right and a real pleasant surprise. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

This prequel resonates more deeply and thoughtfully than its predecessor – and far more than the third installment of a franchise has any right to. — Aisha Harris, NPR

It is my favorite movie of the three so far. I found it breathtaking. — Rachel Leishman, The Mary Sue

Fans of the first A Quiet Place who are expecting another breathlessly tense sci-fi horror film, are likely to be disappointed by a blockbuster as reflective and, well, quiet as this. Day One bucks the expectations for what a Quiet Place movie, and really a blockbuster film, should be, and instead delivers something much more moving and poignant. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

It’s not often we get a post-apocalyptic saga that remains so personal, so in touch with human loss as something not just forgotten in the next jump scare but given room to linger, an aspect that survives the shift away from parents protecting their children. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

A Quiet Place: Day One can’t boast the freshness of concept of the first film, but, in pure emotional payoff, it’s the most satisfying of the series. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)

What makes it stand on its own?

A Quiet Place: Day One transforms into a truly singular blockbuster movie that sheds the immersive spectacle of the first movie in favor of something more tender and wistful. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While John Krasinski’s two previous Quiet Place films were family affairs, Sarnoski’s entry into the series is more interested in found family. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Sarnoski has done a laudable job, cooking up a spinoff that adheres to the rules of the first two movies by staying focused on the smallest group possible of core characters while spreading the fear factor and suspense across a much larger canvas. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

It’s more of a footnote than a bold new chapter in the series, but this prequel’s relative smallness has its advantages. — Tim Grierson, Screen International

A Quiet Place: Day One feels more like an ambitious indie than a summer studio movie, and its downbeat tone leaves an unexpectedly glum comedown. — Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

(Photo by Gareth Gatrell/©Paramount Pictures)

Is it still scary?

The less we see of the aliens, the better, and Sarnoski leans heavily on the abject fear his characters (and audience) feel once someone makes just a hair too much noise, knowing exactly what’s coming next. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

It avoids the trap of over-explaining anything, making the terror here arguably even more primal than the previous films. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

What the film does well though is deliver a precisely balanced combination of jump scares, intense situations and confrontations with truly horrible creatures. It’s an effectively scary story, and it’s through the silence of the audience that you can measure this film’s success. — John Kirk, Original Cin

It’s not scary anymore, but it’s stressful in the way that makes you dig your nails into your palm. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

In an attempt to build moments of tension and induce scares, the pressure cooker feeling of the deafening silence being broken feels as if it isn’t stretched to its possible limit. That being said, for someone whose second feature is a bonanza of horror-action set pieces, Sarnoski does a sound job. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Sarnoski doesn’t have quite the same handle on the kind of immersive action that Krasinski displayed in the first two Quiet Place movies, and it shows: the jumpscares are mostly by-the-book, and the film’s most tense moments are nothing we haven’t seen in horror before. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While it’s designed to be the Aliens to the Alien of the other films, this one doesn’t thrill quite as much as it intends to. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

Call me macabre, but I expected to see a lot more carnage than Sarnoski’s dismayingly sappy spinoff provides. — Peter Debruge, Variety

How is the change of scenery?

Seeing New York swarming with vicious monsters — scrambling over buildings and leaving giant gashes in their walls, while the streets are lined with burning car wrecks and destroyed storefronts — makes a big impression…production designer Simon Bowles and DP Pat Scola take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by New York. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

The bustle of the city is terrifying because every single noise could end up taking someone from the “city of dreams.” Still, director and writer Michael Sarnoski didn’t ruin what makes this city special. It still feels warm and busy and full of life as people are dying constantly around Eric and Sam. — Rachel Leishman, The Mary Sue

It evokes some of the iconography from 9/11. This isn’t uncharted ground — War of the Worlds and Cloverfield have this pretty well covered… but it’s a rich vein for a good filmmaker to tap into. And Sarnoski does this in ways that feel earned, not exploitative. — Patrick Cremona, Radio Times

As far as the action goes, there are times where Sarnoski uses the distinctive geography of New York City well – most notably a killer sequence that sees our protagonists chased into the subway system. — Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly

There’s nothing to these set pieces we haven’t seen in the previous two movies, meaning it can feel overly familiar at times, but they’re so precisely honed that you’ll find yourself holding your breath all the same. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

What about Michael Sarnoski as director?

Michael Sarnoski was the perfect fit for this movie. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Michael Sarnoski blew me away with Pig and here, he manages to show that he potentially can do just about anything. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

The filmmaker manages to bring much of his sensibility and overall texture to the series… Much of it is thanks to Sarnoski’s ability to pull deep emotionality out of his stars and audience almost immediately. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Sarnoski is working on an auteur wavelength. He often lets the momentum stagnate just enough so the viewer can truly take in the staggering annihilation of a city now in ruins, full of death, and inherent quiet beauty. — Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist

Sarnoski’s strengths as a filmmaker play better into the film’s more intimate moments compared to the larger action-oriented spectacle. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

How ist Lupita Nyong’o’s performance?

Nyong’o carries the movie on very capable shoulders. Never under-selling the crippling terror that rules Samira’s every move, the actor conveys the conflict between the character’s bitterness and her humanity, remaining tenacious and decisive even when her body starts seriously failing her. She keeps you glued throughout. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Nyong’o commands the screen, every emotion conveyed by her facial expressions. Samira’s development across the movie might be conventional – stoic loner to trusting friend – but Nyong’o makes it feel fresh and earned. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Nyong’o’s work in Jordan Peele’s doppelganger horror Us felt leagues apart from anything we could casually term “scream queen.” She returns to that same territory here, concentrating all the primal terror of a scream into a single tear rolling down her cheek. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

A Quiet Place: Day One may feasibly do what Jordan Peele’s Us so unfairly didn’t, and if it does carry her through to awards season, it will finally prove that the old saw about genre movies and the Academy is finally a thing of the past. — Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Not once does it get old watching Nyong’o dive into her bag of tricks, especially for horror films. Nyong’o continues to elicit some of the most fear-induced expressions (while flexing that one tear-drop magic), giving audiences an unlikely lead that leaves a mark. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Quite simply: Nyong’o elevates the franchise. — Aisha Harris, NPR

And Joseph Quinn?

Quinn is enormously moving. — Caryn James, BBC.com

Joseph Quinn [is] wonderfully vulnerable. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

The British actor manages the feat of delivering an overstated performance that still somehow feels understated… With some actors, an overly emotional performance inspires eye rolls. Quinn makes you want to give him a hug. — William Mullally, The National

He delivers a far more sweet-natured performance than the emboldened personality that everyone came to know him from in Stranger Things . — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

He shows the benefits of casting a face we don’t already know from a string of movies. His sensitivity is so acute, and his big brown eyes so brimming with feeling that Eric’s resourcefulness and steadily summoned bravery almost catch us off guard. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

What about the two of them together?

The actors’ chemistry yields deeply affecting impact in their tender final scenes, rendered more powerful by their wordlessness. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Samira and Eric’s friendship also brings a deeper emotional aspect compared to the previous two movies. If you thought Lee singing “I love you” to Regan in the first movie was a lot, wait until you get to a beautiful sequence in a bar between Samira and Eric. You’ll cry over pizza. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Nyong’o and Quinn have a good sense of camaraderie, with them realistically heroic as the film goes on, and willing to sacrifice their well-being for the other. — Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Any other standouts?

The other star is Frodo, a screen cat for the ages to rank with Ulysses from Inside Llewyn Davis or Jonesy from Alien , played by two chonky black-and-white felines named Nico and Schnitzel. He has the gentle nature and cuddliness of a service cat but also the badass curiosity to explore precarious situations and feed his humans’ anxieties. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

The film’s best character [is] a pet cat who is the best on-screen feline since Ulysses in 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis . — William Mullally, The National

Nyong’o and Quinn are superb, but they can’t compete with an adorable cat who clearly does not give a damn that he’s in an apocalypse. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

It has one of the greatest pets ever in a film. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Will it leave us wanting more Quiet Place movies?

If this is how the franchise is going to be treated going forward, I think there’s potential to continue on with more installments. Either way, the trilogy we have now is among the better ones in recent memory. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

It has to be said that A Quiet Place has turned out to be a franchise with better legs than any of us thought, thanks to the smart people behind it and the top-notch talent on the screen. While it’s the least of the series, it’s still quite good, and it feels like a franchise that could sustain another movie or two. — Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

While this is a solid entry in this franchise, the whole appeal of A Quiet Place (which sometimes can be quite gimmicky) and its implementation of silence feels like it will run its course sooner rather than later. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

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A Quiet Place: Day One lives up to the first movie by doing something radically different

Pig director Michael Sarnoski finds a real purpose for a prequel: exploring uncharted emotional territory

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A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t so much a spinoff and prequel of John Krasinski’s 2018 horror movie as it is a riveting drama that plays in the series’ sandbox. You can spot the odd bit of new world-building here or there, about just how and why there are so many damn echolocating aliens, but these tidbits are just background noise ( shh, not so loud! ) to a much more interesting human story. A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II are rural sci-fi horror, but Day One — from Pig director Michael Sarnoski — moves the setting to New York City and crafts its story in the vein of large-scale disaster cinema. It’s likely the best Manhattan mayhem film since Cloverfield , and it’s also a downright excellent Hollywood blockbuster, if an entirely unexpected one.

A first-time indie filmmaker being subsumed by the studio system can be cause for concern — it’s usually a sign they’ve been hired to execute a board room’s vision — but A Quiet Place: Day One has Sarnoski written all over it, as a genre filmmaker who finds emotional resonance where most might not think to look. Pig , which initially seemed like “ John Wick , but with a chef and his beloved sow,” proved surprisingly thoughtful in its unraveling of grief, a sleight-of-hand gambit that applies to Sarnoski’s horror threequel, too. Day One is as much about confronting oblivion as it is about confronting aliens, for reasons the movie’s seemingly omnipresent trailers have avoided revealing.

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When Day One opens, its lead character, the former poet Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), is wasting away in a hospice facility, frustrated by her terminal cancer diagnosis, and searching for any reason to lash out. She has just weeks to live, if that, which makes her an especially intriguing centerpiece in a film like this one. Whether she survives the movie is barely relevant, compared to how the experience of living through the end of the world as we know it will change her. The plot’s possibilities are finite, but the film’s emotional possibilities are endless, even within the series’ sci-fi confines.

The beats of the previous Quiet Place movies are present, but simplified: giant, insect-like monsters viciously kill anyone who makes noise. Everyone who doesn’t die in the first wave figures this out quickly, without burdening the audience with a guessing game where we already know the answers. But the movie is set so far in the series’ past — several years before the Quiet Place characters find the aliens’ weakness — that there’s practically no hope for a solution, or for humanity to fight back. At no point are these extraterrestrials framed like slasher-movie serial killers, with creeping one-on-one encounters the humans might possibly win. They function more like a force of nature, an inevitable doom sweeping through the streets of Manhattan, akin to an unrelenting hurricane attracted to noise.

Not only is New York the worst possible place to be when this specific apocalypse hits — the movie’s opening text claims the city’s average noise pollution is 90 decibels, the same as a human scream — but it’s a particularly thorny place to set a disaster movie in general. Like Cloverfield , though, A Quiet Place: Day One doesn’t shy away from the specter of 9/11, and the indelible news footage that came out of it. When the city becomes ground zero for the invasion, Sarnoski immediately envelops the characters in a disorienting cloud of dust.

The film, it turns out, is as much about New York as it is about the characters and the series’ central gimmick. Sarnoski treats the city’s neighborhoods and architecture as a distinct terrain. (Though he takes liberties when it comes to subway station design — New Yorkers will have a lot to say about those.) By the end, the film isn’t just about New York’s history; in subtle ways, it’s about people’s personal relationship to a changing urban landscape and the memories it holds. Some spaces, in Day One , are just spaces; they’re dull and functional. But some, which hold specific meaning, are presented with an ethereal glow.

The spectacle of vehicles being tossed helter-skelter and familiar landmarks being damaged beyond repair is a key part of any disaster film’s allure. Sarnoski imbues these traditional visual cues with immense emotional weight, though, by focusing on how people would realistically react to experiencing them. This trajectory seems strangely idiosyncratic at first. When Sam visits the city with her cat, Frodo (a cute reference — they’re an inseparable pair), on a bus full of fellow patients chaperoned by kindly nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff), she’s intent on eating her favorite slice of New York pizza. This also remains her objective even when everything goes to hell.

That may seem like a joke about New Yorkers’ claims of culinary superiority, but the film is on Sam’s wavelength. Her arduous journey from downtown Manhattan to a specific Harlem pizza place is quickly established as an emotionally rooted fixation, a response to the immense trauma she’s facing. If she’s going to die, she wants to do it on her own terms, even if that means charging headfirst toward certain death for a small but familiar comfort.

On her way uptown, she runs into an English law student, Eric (Joseph Quinn), who, rather than evacuating, decides to follow her for a reason that seems equally ridiculous. He winds up as the film’s emotional backbone. Sam’s diagnosis had already turned her world upside down: The alien invasion reads like an external manifestation of her spiritual chaos. Eric’s life, by contrast, was on a straightforward path, but the experience of nearly dying on day one shakes him to his core.

Survival instinct as a broad concept is a decent enough character motive for a disaster movie, but Sarnoski anchors this idea in simple but powerfully relatable stimuli. In Sam’s case, it’s the specificity of memory. (The pizza place has a deeper significance than is immediately apparent.) For Eric, it’s the simple act of connecting not with Sam, but with Frodo. Under the circumstances, either of these motives is reason enough to push forward, in spite of the emerging complications.

As usual for Quiet Place movies, the action is built around moments where the characters want to escape, which clashes with the need to stay absolutely silent. Few theatrical experiences beat the tense realization of Quiet Place sequences where someone inadvertently makes a noise. But the way Day One frames the human voice is a powerful masterstroke. Between Sam’s intense pain as she runs out of medication and Eric’s intense trauma from recent events, the characters don’t just have to avoid making sounds while moving. They instead have to suppress their natures, their primal need to scream as their lives crumble around them.

The movie’s tension remains razor-sharp for lengthy periods, but this is also broken up by sweet moments of release as the characters find isolated ways to interact. Quinn, with his limited dialogue and numerous silent scenes, exudes a sweet, sympathetic vulnerability that takes him to difficult places as a performer. Nyong’o, though she punctuates Sam with moments of abject terror, maintains a stern resolve, which comes with some deeply moving layers.

While there’s no hint of traditional Hollywood romance between Eric and Sam, A Quiet Place: Day One is deeply romantic in its depiction of two frightened souls caring for each other, with emotional and physical intimacy born from sheer instinct, as the world tips past a precipice we know it won’t return from. In the process, Sarnoski and his leads turn what could have easily been facile personal pursuits into the most important thing either character will ever do.

A Quiet Place: Day One is in theaters now.

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A Quiet Place: Day One

A woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing. A woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing. A woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing.

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I still cannot believe that John Krasinski got moviegoers to be silent back in 2018. His box-office smash “ A Quiet Place ” (co-written with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods ) went beyond caring about characters trying to survive in quiet—it taught uneasy audiences to follow suit, filling theaters with silent observers. No moviegoer would want Krasinski to repeat this terror exactly for a sequel, but the changes he’s made in this follow-up then feel especially brash: it’s bigger, faster, louder, and more typical for the horror blockbuster genre. “Part II” has got approximately triple the amount of dialogue as the original, and its horror is far more literal and straightforward. If you were more scared of the sound-hating, generic looking crab/spider monsters with the Venom-like heads from the first movie than you were the visceral challenge of complete silence, “A Quiet Place Part II” is especially for you.  

In writing and directing this sequel, Krasinski proves his intelligence and his non-subversive priorities when it comes to being a genre director. He also asserts his talent at orchestrating tense life-or-death scenes with an exciting sense of when to go slow and when to floor it. In its best moments, “A Quiet Place Part II” reminded me of Steven Spielberg cutting loose with “ The Lost World: Jurassic Park ,” letting his beasts rampage through a new environment in a staggering way. Even if this sequel remains firmly in the shadows of the original, I wanted part three as soon as it was over.  

The first movie ended essentially at its climax, with our heroes, the Abbotts, finally tipping the scales after 400-some days of terror under their noise-slaying captors. “Part II” begins with a deliciously cruel reset, going back to day one of all this, when no one knew anything. We as audience members know what comes eventually (Krasinski’s plotting treats the first movie as required viewing), and that makes a scene at a Little League baseball game—an open field of noise—an especially nerve-rattling, jack-in-the-box sequence in a movie that has plenty of them. The match is called off when something especially big blows up in the sky; everyone shuffles home. Many citizens don’t stand a chance after the aliens suddenly slam into town, sending Lee Abbott (Krasinski) into hiding with his daughter Regan ( Millicent Simmonds ), while mother Evelyn ( Emily Blunt ) frantically drives with her two sons. This is like a high-octane victory lap for what Krasinski accomplished in the first movie especially as its bracing violence reacclimatizes us to fearing sound, while locking us into different characters’ points-of-view with long takes as they try to navigate pure chaos. “A Quiet Place Part II” announces here that it’s playing a different and considerably less interesting game, but it’s a bravura sequence.

“Part II” then jumps right to the end of the last one, moments after Evelyn victoriously cocked a shotgun. With their family's barn burning, and patriarch Lee dead in the fields, it’s time to leave home. Carrying her newborn baby, Evelyn travels with her daughter Regan and son Marcus ( Noah Jupe ) off the sand path that had previously been laid by Lee, past the gravesite of their young son from the beginning of the first movie. Regan has her cochlear implant in hand, looking to further weaponize it after its feedback proved at the end of the first movie to give the monsters debilitating headaches (or something like that). Her search for more people sets them on a course for a signal, and the unknown of humanity.  

With part one focusing on sacrifice for family, this sequel now concerns what one would give up to help others. Cillian Murphy plays the bleary Emmett, the newest addition to the series, a family friend from the ball game who ponders this question when he refuses to help the Abbotts after they step into the abandoned factory he lords over. He is incredibly resistant at first, especially given his own loss and waning food supply. And he warns Evelyn of looking for others, talking about how there are now “people who aren’t worth saving.” Emmett has an intriguing bitterness, until the film’s overall emotional growth is reduced to Emmett learning to follow the gospel of all-American hero Lee, which is not the only cheesy idea that Krasinski takes too seriously. And yet within the movie’s fear of other humans, it does ramp up a good bit of fear later on with people who are less giving than the Abbotts: it’s scary when a group of people are staring at you, and not saying a word.  

As his characters venture into new territory, it’s solid craftsman Krasinski who is noticeably not taking many risks. He leads with intention, and he’s confident with multiple threads at once, and in putting every cast member (including the baby!) in uncomfortable danger. And yet any time he’ll do something really radical—like bring Regan to the forefront, alone with shotgun in hand—he eventually shirks from it for a development that’s noticeably easier. Or in some cases, he’ll rely on an easy scare with a dead body popping into frame, piling on the movie's numerous loud noises for scares. The series’ original appeal of minimal, hushed dialogue is toyed with too, as “Part II” bends some of the rules eagerly enforced all for the sake of quiet-ish conversations that streamline emotions in a way that’s far less eloquent than the sign language in the original.  

The performances remain sound, and intense, even if the story gives little space for them. Blunt is in more of a straightforward action mode, having already proven how bad-ass she was in the first movie, still embodying a great deal of physical stress and the maternal urge to protect. Jupe and Simmonds are true professionals when it comes to crying, screaming terror, and they both bring out a tenderness to this story of discovery with glimmers of hope. And Krasinski remains good at casting interesting faces for their intensity—Murphy’s face can show a certain weariness in different lights, and here he looks beat, mysterious, but human. Djimon Hounsou and Scoot McNairy also lend their unique presences to this movie, but that’s all that can really be said.  

The only entity that moves faster than Michael P. Shawver ’s editing are the monsters themselves. But there’s no love for them from the story—they’re like an actor in an ensemble who has to be there contractually, even though no one would invite them to the wrap party. Aside from falling from the sky, they're not further developed by Krasinski, and the amount of focus this story gives to them shines a light on how weakly conceived they are (however impeccably rendered by ILM). Krasinski’s interest in going against explainer fan culture—good luck with this one, YouTube—is intriguing, but the lack of background feels like he just has too little to say about his monsters. They become plainly dull villains here, aggressively silencing human beings with a slash or a toss, and, ho hum, that’s it. Two movies in, and their mystery is starting to hint that there’s no there there.  

What’s surprising about the whole “A Quiet Place” emotional experience largely fades here, especially as all of this unfolds with a numbing amount of max-volume slams, bangs, and bass warbles; Marco Beltrami's score brings in the original's meditative themes when it's not trying to blow you to the back of the theater. But the moments in which humans and monsters clash are incredibly robust and kinetic, and succeed at getting you to think of nothing else in the story but the terror on screen. Along with cinematographer Polly Morgan and editor Shawver, Krasinski proves highly adept at building and layering in-your-face sequences, especially as three different storylines climax with beloved characters screaming for their lives. One of Krasinski's best visual touches involves two scenes that trap the viewer into a point-of-view of being in a fast car, like at the beginning when Evelyn is trying to speed-reverse from a hijacked bus. These thrilling sequences give the film plenty of adrenaline at its beginning and end, and play like a nod from a still-evolving Krasinski: he’s embracing “enjoy your ride” filmmaking, even if that can encourage a viewer’s passivity. Here’s hoping that “Part III” leaves more room for what got people talking in the first place.  

Available only in theaters May 28.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

Rated PG-13

Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott

Cillian Murphy as Emmett

Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott

Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott

Wayne Duvall as Roger

John Krasinski as Lee Abbott

• John Krasinski

Writer (characters)

• Bryan Woods

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• Polly Morgan
• Michael P. Shawver
• Marco Beltrami

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While A Quiet Place Part II can’t quite top its predecessor, and never quite nails the multi-narrative cross-cutting it employs, it’s still a highly exciting and well-acted follow-up. Director John Krasinski and Co. broaden the world of A Quiet Place with a larger cast, bigger action set-pieces, and more monster scenes but thankfully, as big as the sequel goes, the film never loses sight of the emotional intimacy between the characters that made the first movie work so well.

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A Quiet Place Part II

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Watch A Quiet Place Part II with a subscription on Hulu, Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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A nerve-wracking continuation of its predecessor, A Quiet Place Part II expands the terrifying world of the franchise without losing track of its heart.

Almost as scary and intense as the original, A Quiet Place Part II will leave audiences on the edge of their seats -- and waiting for Part III .

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A Quiet Place Part II

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Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 28, 2021
• Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott; John Krasinski as Lee Abbott; Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott; Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott; Cillian Murphy as Emmett; Djimon Hounsou as Man on Island

Home Release Date

• July 27, 2021
• John Krasinski

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• Paramount Pictures

Movie Review

Losing a spouse is a terrible and tragic thing.

To lose a spouse right after giving birth during an attack of alien monsters who have super hearing and can swoop in and kill within seconds, however, well that’s worse.

That’s exactly where Evelyn Abbott is right now.

Evelyn’s on her own with two young teens and a newborn, and with no place to go. Evelyn must battle her grief, battle nearly indestructable monsters and somehow find some small bit of shelter where she can hope to keep her kids safe.

Though, let’s face it, safe is a relative term these days.

Oh, and on that front, you may not be surprised to learn that the other terrified survivors in the area near Evelyn’s now burned-to-the-ground farm aren’t too keen on having a woman with a infant in their midst. Babies have such a hard time grasping the concept of being deadly silent.

So what does a woman like Evelyn do? Well, first she steps quietly. She walks with her kids for miles, quietly. She sweats and wheezes quietly under the weight of the family’s few vital posessions.

After that, all she can do is hope. She hopes that someone might offer some shred of assistance. She hopes for some little miracle, one tiny mustard seed of faith, a small bit of bravery from someone. Anyone.

And Evelyn is slightly surprised when she begins to see hints and glimspes of all those things in her teen daughter Regan. Regan is deaf—an auditory limitation that handicaps her doubly in a world where every tiny sound you make can end in nearly instant death. But Regan has always taken after her dad. And that’s made her resourceful, observant, honarable and willing to give everything to help someone in need.

All of those traits are exactly what Evelyn and the Abbott family need right now. They just have to live long enough to put those excellent character qualities to use.

Positive Elements

In a flashback scene that shows us how the alien attack began, Evelyn’s husband, Lee, quickly assesses the situation. He’s also instrumental in making brave choices and getting his family to safety.

We see the similar self-sacrificial bravery in many of this film’s characters. Evelyn repeatedly puts her life on the line to protect her kids. And a man named Emmet—who lost his whole family and initially wants nothing to do with Evelyn and her brood—eventually steps up to use what skills he possesses to defend others.

The Abbott kids (Regan and Marcus) bravely step into the fight, too. They both make some less-than-wise choices along the way. But Regan, in particular, uses the lessons she’s learning to defeat the monsters. She also deciphers certain messages and clues in a radio message and bravely gives her all to save her family and others. “I can save them. I can save us!” she says in sign language when told that she needs to turn back. She also challenges Emmett to be a better and braver man.

Spiritual Elements

During the flashback showing the aliens’ initial attack, a frightened man verbally recites the Lord’s Prayer to calm himself. Lee realizes the danger and quiets the man before he draws the attacking creature’s attention.  

Evelyn visits her dead son’s grave/memorial, and a small cross is planted on the spot where he died.

Sexual Content

Violent content.

An opening flashback scene featuring a flaming spacecraft crashing to the Earth, which gives a sense of context to the alien invasion and immediately ushers viewers in to the fact that A Quiet Place Part II is far more monster focused than the first film. A sense of rabid chaos delivered by multiple creatures carries over into the rest of the story.

The creatures’ talon-tipped attacks rip and rend everything from furniture and walls, to the metal exteriors of vehicles and farm buildings. We see scores of people and vehicles being quickly slammed around, with windows being smashed. The scenery, large and small, gets chewed to bits. 

We also watch the beasts slash at humans with their angled, arachnid-like limbs on numerous occasions. Crowds of victims are snatched, dragged away and tossed around like rag-dolls. On other occasions people sit or crouch in fear as the blind creatures slowly circle around or above them, listening for a potential instant kill, clicking and ticking ominously as they move.

It’s implied that scores and scores of people are killed in the course of the film. And we see everything from fresh kills to older, desiccated corpses. But in each case, we are spared any bloodiness. (In many cases the camera cuts away just as a strike lands.)

A young boy steps on a bear trap and has his ankle and foot instantly crushed. This event turns out to be very bloody, and the camera looks at his mangled appendage while alcohol is poured on the open wounds.

When humans attack the aliens—causing the aliens to expose tender tissue, blasting them with shotguns and rifles, and striking them with bludgeons—things can get a little bloody, too. Several creatures are left in pools of their own gore after being defeated.

Humans attack humans, as well, choking and pummeling victims. One man almost drowns underwater with a noose around his neck.

Crude or Profane Language

One use each of the s-word and the words “h—” and “d–n.” We hear a single exclamation of “oh my god” and a misuse of Jesus’ name.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Emmett has a half-full bottle of vodka that Evelyn uses for an antiseptic someone’s wound. Evelyn also walks into town to get prescription meds to ward off infection.

Other Negative Elements

Emmett’s spirit is initially quite crushed, and he refuses to give the Abbotts any help inspite of their obvious need. A small group of people grab Emmett and Regan and appear ready to steal everything they have and cause them bodily harm before being interrupted.

It’s very, very difficult to catch lightning in a bottle … twice.

In that light, fans of the 2018 hit A Quiet Place aren’t apt to find their time with the Abbotts—and their aurally amped-up alien attackers—to be quite as emotionally riveting or blood-pressure-raising this go round.

For one thing, the story’s family focus is diluted a bit here because the Abbott clan members are sent off in different directions at times . The messaging then becomes more about stepping up to a great challenge and helping others, rather than just holding a family unit together. And the movie as a whole plays out as much more of a straightforward creature-feature, with the sharp-toothed and talon-clawed monsters taking more of a hacking and bashing center stage.

That said, there’s a lot here to appreciate if you’re in the mood for a good scare at the movies. Director John Krasinski paces things well, while still hitting all the cinematic thrill ride beats you would expect. The ticking-and-clicking beasty tension still leaves you on the edge of your seat without splashing you with an abundance of gore. And the self-sacrificial heroics are still pretty cheer worthy.

Should younger family members still skip this pic in favor of something, well, less terrorizing? Yeah, I’d have to check that box. Unless, of course, you like the idea of the tykes being up all night with “Mommy, mommy, make it go away!” on their lips.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Listen Carefully: The Tense 'Quiet Place' Sequel Speaks To Our Present Time

Justin Chang

Marcus (Noah Jupe), Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) brave the unknown in A Quiet Place Part II. Jonny Cournoyer/Paramount Pictures hide caption

Marcus (Noah Jupe), Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) brave the unknown in A Quiet Place Part II.

In the sensational 2018 thriller A Quiet Place , humanity has been ravaged by hideous alien predators with extraordinary powers of hearing. The story follows the Abbotts, a family of survivors who must stay quiet at all times, unable to talk or sneeze or step on a creaky floorboard or they'll likely be dead.

It was a killer word-of-mouth hook: Here was a movie you had to watch in a theater in your own state of silence, with no slurping or popcorn crunching allowed.

A Quiet Place became a huge success, and its filmmaker and star, John Krasinski, wrote and directed a sequel that was supposed to open in March 2020. But then the COVID-19 pandemic forced theaters to close, and the movie's release was postponed.

'A Quiet Place' Will Leave You Shhhhhhaken

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Actor john krasinski takes stock of his 'lottery-ticket life'.

Now, more than a year later, theaters have reopened, and A Quiet Place Part II is drawing large audiences. Is it too soon to go back to theaters, with the pandemic not yet fully subsided? I wondered as much when I watched the film at a recent media screening. I felt pretty safe: I was wearing a mask in a nearly empty theater and had been fully vaccinated weeks earlier. But I also felt privileged to be seeing a film on a big screen with strict precautions in place.

Whether you go to see it now or wait until it begins streaming, A Quiet Place Part II is likely to make you a little jumpy. It doesn't have the same claustrophobic intensity as its predecessor, but it's just as taut, suspenseful and beautifully made.

As before, Krasinski doesn't explain why the aliens are here in the first place. But he does give us an opening flashback to the terrible day they arrived, laying waste to the Abbotts' small town in upstate New York — and other towns and cities all over the globe. Many people die, but the Abbotts survive, mainly because they're quick to realize that the monsters hunt by sound.

Then the movie flashes forward many months, picking up right after the events of the first film. Krasinski's character, Lee Abbott, has been tragically killed, leaving behind his wife, Evelyn, played by a fierce Emily Blunt , and their children. (Krasinski and Blunt are married in real life.)

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The family is shaken but resilient: They've finally discovered the aliens' fatal weakness, and they're curious about making contact with other survivors. And so they set out from their farmhouse and make their way across an overgrown post-apocalyptic landscape where danger lurks around every corner.

The fact that the characters can't speak out loud is one reason the Quiet Place movies are so effective: Not being able to fall back on verbal exposition has forced Krasinski to become a ruthlessly efficient visual storyteller. It's often said that Alfred Hitchcock's movies are so sharply directed, you could turn the sound off and still follow the action — a truth that applies to these movies as well.

It helps that the Abbotts are fluent in American Sign Language since their oldest child, Regan, is deaf — as is the actor who plays her, the remarkable Millicent Simmonds. As in the first film, Regan emerges as the story's truest hero: She's tough, courageous and determined to help as many other people as she can. Less eager to take action is her traumatized younger brother, Marcus, heartbreakingly played by Noah Jupe.

Eventually the Abbotts take temporary shelter in an abandoned steel factory where they reunite with an old family friend, Emmett, played by a grave Cillian Murphy. Emmett is grieving the loss of his family and has become deeply cynical about humanity, at one point saying, "The people that are left ... they're not worth saving." Regan disagrees; not only are people worth saving, she says, but if enough of them join forces, they might be able to fight back against the aliens.

The movie seems to think they both have a point. As Regan and Emmett embark on a perilous journey in search of survivors, they find themselves in situations that give rise to both hope and despair. Some of the people they meet are as predatory as the monsters; others are as brave and compassionate as Regan. That makes A Quiet Place Part II an unexpectedly resonant film for the present moment as this country slowly emerges from a crisis that — while surely less terrifying than an alien apocalypse — has revealed humanity at its best and its worst.

The movie ends on an inconclusive note, leaving the door open for another sequel, which is both frustrating and heartening. I'm already looking forward to finding out what happens next — hopefully in a dark theater, watching as quietly as I can.

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A Quiet Place Part II Review: Had Me Quiet Like A Church Mouse

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

A Quiet Place Part II Trailer:

A Quiet Place II picked up in an exciting fashion by giving us a bit of a prequel to introduce the film. It was nice to see John Krasinki’s character once again, and it immediately invoked the emotional impact of his character’s actions from the previous film. The opening sequence was the perfect way to lock you into the film as it included some exciting moments. My favorite was easily the car and bus scene with the family trying to make their way through all the chaos.

Evelyn (Emily Blunt) braves the unknown in “A Quiet Place Part II.”

What made A Quiet Place II so captivating were the technical aspects of the film. The sound mixing was really engaging especially when we had moments where there was no sound at all. This was a great way to give us the unique perspective of the deaf character in the film, and it added an extra element of fear during some scenes. For many people who are not deaf, having that brief moment happen in the movie almost makes you feel more vulnerable as you relate to the character’s situations. Come to think of it, more silence may have been welcomed as this was the case in the previous movie.

L-r, Marcus (Noah Jupe), Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) brave the unknown in “A Quiet Place Part II.”

Along with the sound mixing was some excellent cinematography. A Quiet Place II is filled with unique camera angles that immerse you into the moment. A great example of this would be in the train scene. (You’ll know it when you see it.) This is exactly what contributes to having such terrifying and suspenseful moments in the movie. Often times, you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled in case a creature is lurking about.

Director John Krasinski on the set of “A Quiet Place Part II.”

Regarding the alien creatures, I was originally concerned that we’d be seeing far too much of them. As a result it would make them less intimidating. However, director John Krasinski managed to find a suitable balance in their presence in the film and still found various ways to keep them scary. You can definitely feel similar vibes from the Alien movies in this.

The only minor issue I had with A Quiet Place II was the decision making by some of the characters. More specifically, the kids were frustrating in some of the scenes. This was a similar issue in the first movie that had the kids doing questionable things that went against conventional thinking. Their actions could involve anything from going off on their own or investigating things in spite of pure danger.

L-r, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and Marcus (Noah Jupe) brave the unknown in “A Quiet Place Part II.”

When you think about the fact that the characters in this movie have been enduring this invasion for a year and a half, some level of common sense should be expected. Thankfully, these actions were redeemed in the film but it didn’t make them any less annoying.

The Verdict:

A Quiet Place II was an exceptional follow-up as it maintained a similar sense of terror and suspense as its predecessor.  What works best here is that this sequel does manage to introduce some new story elements that helps to keep things intriguing. Thus, A Quiet Place II successfully carries the baton even if it doesn’t outmatch the previous movie.

I was originally concerned about how John Krasinski would be able to make a new sequel to a film that honestly didn’t really need one. He did a great job with this film although I think this film should be as far it goes in this franchise. The first film gave us such a unique experience, especially in theaters, that it was hard to top that even with a good sequel. There’s only so much a sequel can do to supersede the special experience the other film provided audiences.

Regan (Millicent Simmonds) braves the unknown in “A Quiet Place Part II.”

If possible, it would be ideal to watch A Quiet Place II in theaters. The communal experience of the audience being collectively quiet is part of the fun with this film. While it isn’t required, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to revisit the first movie first before watching A Quiet Place II . Since the story picks up right after the events of the first film, it would just help a bit. Either way, be sure to check out A Quiet Place II when you get the chance.

Director: John Krasinski Writers: John Krasinski Stars: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou A Quiet Place Part II  is now in theaters May 28, 2021. Be sure to follow E-Man’s Movie Reviews on Facebook, Subscribe on YouTube , or follow me on Twitter/IG @EmansReviews for even more movie news and reviews!

• Acting - 7.5/10 7.5/10
• Cinematography - 8/10 8/10
• Plot/Screenplay - 8/10 8/10
• Setting/Theme - 7.5/10 7.5/10
• Buyability - 9/10 9/10
• Recyclability - 8/10 8/10

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‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Review: John Krasinski’s Monster Movie Sequel Amps Up the Scares

Tight-lipped alien-invasion sequel feels even more unsettling in a world cautiously emerging from the coronavirus.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

• ‘The Imaginary’ Review: What’s a Pretend Friend to Do When His Human Creator Outgrows Him? 3 days ago
• ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Review: Alien Invasion Prequel Arrives Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing 4 days ago
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For many, John Krasinski ’s “ A Quiet Place Part II ” will be their first movie back since the pandemic forced theaters to shut down. There’s a certain poetry to that, since the high-tension horror sequel picks up just over a year into a life-changing threat to humanity. After a delay of nearly as long from the original March 2020 release date, the fictional Abbott family — or what remains of it — now seems more relatable than ever. They listened to the news when a deadly invasion struck, they played it even more cautious than their neighbors, and they made it this far. Now what?

Well, if you’re vaccinated and feeling safe enough to step foot outside your home, Krasinski has crafted a follow-up that justifies the trip. It can be hard to believe that both the sequel and the instant-classic 2018 original were produced by Michael Bay, a filmmaker who has pushed the moviegoing experience to ear-splitting extremes, since Krasinski so effectively embraces the opposite strategy: Less is more, suggestion can be scarier than showing everything, and few things are more unnerving than silence.

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Things got loud when the monsters attacked, but most of the movie was spent in a state of hushed suspense, as the Abbotts made every effort to avoid the detection of creatures with incredibly sensitive hearing. As a result, audiences found themselves attuned to every little sound in the auditorium itself. You couldn’t help noticing the innocuous sniffles and coughs that accompany any public screening experience, except that now, as people cautiously return to theaters, such noises may trigger an extra set of anxieties.

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Whereas “A Quiet Place” opened several months into a frightening new “normal” — one in which humans were no longer the top of the food chain — the new movie backtracks to the day the alien species arrived. That’s a smart way around an unfortunate additional limitation put on the sequel: namely, that Krasinski’s character didn’t survive the original. By flashing back to that initial attack, the director can show us how the entire Abbott clan reacted to Earth’s new apex predator, offering a little more time with the family’s late patriarch amid a handful of ambitious close encounters (like the one where Emily Blunt ’s Evelyn narrowly avoids being hit by an oncoming bus).

Flash forward 474 days, and the surviving members — mother Evelyn, resourceful daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), kid brother Marcus (Noah Jupe) and a newborn whose crying could cost them all their lives — must leave the farm and seek shelter at one of the other encampments, marked by bonfires on the horizon. While Krasinski’s core influences so far have been Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, the new movie also cribs from “The Walking Dead” and virtually every mainstream zombie movie that’s come before. The dilemma: hunker down and defend oneself, Alamo style, or venture out and hope what’s left of humankind might still have some vestige of civilization left to it.

The Abbotts are lucky that the first person they meet is an old friend, Emmett ( Cillian Murphy ), who’s been hiding out in an abandoned steel mill. It takes some convincing to guilt him into helping them, but Krasinski (who takes sole writing credit this time around) loves a protective and potentially self-sacrificing father figure. Though the movie empowers its two leading ladies — especially fan favorite Regan, whose cochlear implant already provided an almost-too-convenient defense against the aliens — the director sends Emmett along as chaperone.

When Regan finds herself cornered by one of the creatures on a train, who better to fire the off-screen shot that saves her? But it’s Regan’s idea to find the nearest radio station and use her cochlear implant to broadcast a signal that could defeat the beasts once and for all. Getting there is doubly dangerous, since other people can be unpredictable, and there are more monsters lurking and listening no matter where they go.

Krasinski takes one of those fatuous “a film by” credits on “A Quiet Place Part II,” and yet, there’s no denying the beardy “Office” star’s ingenuity behind the camera, which extends from the movie’s concept through the director’s oversight of visual effects, sound design and other post-production elements. With its conceit of a family trapped in a farmhouse, “A Quiet Place” owed a clear debt to “Signs” (right down to the inanely simple chink in the aliens’ armor). In a way, the sequel feels even more M. Night Shyamalan-esque, drawing out as it does seemingly mundane sequences for maximum suspense.

With a domestic box office of $188 million, the first film was seen widely enough that Krasinski is probably safe in assuming the audience for this one is up to speed, and therefore justified in weaving tiny nods to “A Quiet Place” throughout (such as the spaceship toy that got the Abbotts’ youngest child killed). But instead of addressing the gaping plot holes — why no one else has figured out the aliens’ weakness, or why these creatures have such scary teeth if they don’t stop to eat anything — the new film wagers if you’re on board for the ride, logic shouldn’t matter.

But it does make a difference, and anyone bothered by the way Krasinski has already ignored such glaring inconsistencies as the monsters’ ability to hear small noises from far away, but not breathing or heartbeats mere inches from their ears, will drive themselves crazy this time around. As the helmer’s canvas widens, it becomes even harder to overlook the obvious (like the decision to transport a baby through open spaces), amounting to a cunningly executed thriller that will leave half the audience wondering, “Why didn’t they just do that in the first place?”

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, May 17, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 97 MIN.

• Production: A Paramount Pictures release, presented in association with Michael Bay, of a Platinum Dunes, Sunday Night production. Producers: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, John Krasinski. Executive producers: Allyson Seeger, Joann Perritano, Aaron Janus.
• Crew: Director, writer: John Krasinski, based on characters created by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck. Camera: Polly Morgan. Editor: Michael P. Shawver. Music: Marco Beltrami.
• With: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, John Krasinski.

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‘A Quiet Place Part II’ review: a gripping horror sequel that’s worth shouting about

You'll gasp, scream and jump out of your skin – but remember to keep the noise down

A bout 15 minutes into A Quiet Place Part II , there is an intertitle: “Day 474”. It hits a little harder than originally intended. The sequel to John Krasinski’s brilliantly clever 2018 horror was supposed to come out in March 2020, but coronavirus had other plans. While it’s in no way about the current pandemic, there’s a lot about it that plays differently now. While we may not have dealt with 18 months of alien invasion, the sense of life turned upside down and normality feeling like a foreign land resonates. There’s something quite cathartic about watching a horror in which people learn to beat the seemingly unstoppable enemy. Also, it provides an opportunity to have a really good scream.

In the first film, aliens had come to Earth with no apparent intention other than to kill anyone they found. Completely blind, these extraterrestrial creatures instead track people by sound, meaning anyone who wants to survive has to live in almost total silence. Krasinski used this very cinematic conceit to create a horror in which very few lines are spoken and the film’s soundtrack is largely the viewer’s racing heart and gasping breath. It was superb. A real ‘must see it in the cinema’ experience.

This follow-up doesn’t have the novelty of that conceit to rely on, but Krasinski is a smart director. He doesn’t try to retread the same tiptoed footsteps. He has new ideas. It’s not as thrillingly original as the first film, but it’s still significantly better than most horror sequels and full of beautiful touches.

The film begins with a flashback to the day the aliens arrived, which serves as both a refresher on the story so far and an excuse for Krasinski to show off his action chops, with the beasties running rampage through a screaming town and a heart-in-mouth car chase. Then we pick up right where the last film ended, with Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) giving her everything to protect her children, Regan (Millicent Simmons), Marcus ( Noah Jupe ) and a brand new, unnamed baby whose screams repeatedly threatened to bring monsters a-runnin’.

Seeking safety after the destruction of their home, the family stumble across an old family friend, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who has had an even worse apocalypse than the Abbotts and is reluctant to attach himself to anyone new. When a horrible accident befalls one of them, Evelyn, Marcus and Regan are split up, all with their own missions to protect the family, and with killer monsters between them and reunion.

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Krasinski’s decision to split his three leads is both his best idea and his biggest handicap. There is a section in the middle of the film where the tension slackens, as the three make their own quiet progress, but once Krasinski tightens it up, the cutting between the three stories triples the anxiety. We know things can’t work out well for all three, and Krasinski, clearly enjoying the torture, keeps us constantly guessing.

As both writer and director, he has tremendous fun with his set pieces, all of which are fiendishly devised. He plays with sequences that are so quiet you could hear a mouse fart and others that are thunderous with noise, luring the aliens rather than simply avoiding them. And he remains excellent at punctuating the horror with really moving scenes of family love. With Blunt in a rather reduced role, Krasinski puts the emotional heavy-lifting on Simmons and Jupe. They are more than up to the task.Their performances and the story of the family learning to go on without dad may well have you weeping, when you’re not simply whimpering in fear.

Krasinski has promised that a third film is coming to close out the story and, given the quality of the first two, it’s extremely welcome. He’s shown himself to be a director worth shouting about, but only once you’ve left the silence of the cinema.

• Director: John Krasinski
• Starring: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds
• Release date: June 3 (in UK cinemas)
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‘inside out 2’ cracks domestic top 10 all-time animated movies; jumps to $800m global box office .

• ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Easily Scares Up $53M Franchise Opening Record, But ‘Inside Out 2’ Has Last Laugh With Third No. 1 Win At $57M+ – Sunday AM Update

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UPDATED, SUNDAY AM FINAL: So, as we approach the end of the weekend, it wasn’t a close call for No. 1 between Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Paramount ‘s A Quiet Place: Day One , with the former beating the latter $57.4M to $53M . Global debut for A Quiet Place: Day One was $98.5M . Inside Out 2 passes the $1 billion global mark as scheduled.

Inside Out 2 ‘s success this weekend stems from an excellent, matinee fueled Friday to Saturday bump of 30%, for a total yesterday of $22.2M . That’s near the 31% Friday-to-Saturday jump that Incredibles 2 posted in its third frame. We thought weekday business this coming week would steal away some cash yesterday. That didn’t happen.

A Quiet Place: Day One ‘s 3-day bests the U.S./Canada start of the 2018 movie ($50.2M) and the 2020 sequel at $47.5M. For actress Lupita Nyong’o, not counting her ensemble movies of Star Wars and Black Panther, Day One ‘s opening reps her second-best solo career start at the domestic box office after Jordan Peele’s Us ($71.1M).

Still, it couldn’t be clearer, we are out of the dog days of the strike-impacted box office with a consistent supply of event films, many of which are over-indexing. Paramount and tracking never saw a franchise opening record coming for the John Krasinski alien production, but here’s another summer movie once again that’s overperforming for the fourth weekend in a row, thanks to a coast-to-coast heat wave and diverse moviegoers’ walk-up business. According to Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, 66% bought their tickets for A Quiet Place: Day One same day, versus 9% who snapped up their tickets in advance more than a week ago.

Said Paramount Domestic Distribution Boss Chris Aronson on the momentum of the marketplace, “It’s a sign of a much healthier marketplace and A Quiet Place: Day One is a different choice than anything else out there. The marketplace really hums when there is choice, when there’s movies for everybody.”

Let’s also acknowledge that this is a great date for A Quiet Place: Day One , as it’s the only adult-oriented tentpole during the Independence Day holiday, which is about to be devoured by Minions with Despicable Me 4. Opening Wednesday, the initial 5-day on that is $100M, and let’s just say that’s conservative.

Aronson expounding on the success of the prequel told us, “We did do some research and we listened to our fans, and this is a bit of an origin story with fresh casting, a new setting in New York City, which ramped up the scope and scale of this picture, which all conspired to what is a vibrant chapter in the A Quiet Place franchise.”

Paramount saw a bigger Latino and Hispanic turnout this time with A Quiet Place: Day One, with 32% Hispanic Latino (vs. A Quiet Place 2 ‘s 28%), Caucasian of 39% (vs. 44%), Black at 16% (same) and Asian at 9% (same). Of those who were 18-34, they showed up at 55%

Best areas of play for A Quiet Place: Day One were East, South Central, and West, with the AMC Burbank the No. 1 grossing cinema of the weekend at $125K-plus. Imax North America auditoriums at 408 delivered $5.8M for the prequel, 11% of the weekend. Overall, premium formats as of this morning delivered 39% of the weekend take.

New Line’s Kevin Costner western Horizon officially came in at $11M in third after a $4M Saturday. Like we said earlier in the weekend, the opening itself is par for the course for an original western, and not far from Costner’s Open Range, and it’s an extra $11M this weekend for exhibition. Remember Ron Howard’s Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman western Far and Away ? Very long ago, in May 1992, that opened to $10.1M (unadjusted for inflation). Big, starry western remakes can fetch higher, read Sony’s The Magnificent Seven ($34.7M) and Paramount’s 2010 Christmas hit True Grit ($24.8M).

In regards to Horizon ‘s opening for a movie that may have cost $50M in an entire franchise that cost north of $100M — of course, it’s nothing to scream ‘Yahoo!’ about. Open Range finaled at $58.3M domestic, and that was off excellent reviews and audience response. Horizon is saddled with bad reviews and audience reactions. Warner Bros isn’t on the hook for budgeting or marketing costs. That’s all on Costner. As of right now, the Horizon sequel is still dated for a mid-August theatrical release.

Horizon played well in nontraditional markets. Pic’s top ten cinemas were the Larry Miller Pineview Stadium in St. George, Utah, 2. Santikos Palladium in San Antonio, 3. Harkins in Scottsdale, AZ, 4. Harkins Estrella Falls in Phoenix, 5. Regal Warren Moore in Oklahoma, 6. Harkins Camelview Fashion Square in Phoenix, 7. AMC Thoroughbred in Nashville, TN 8. Larry Miller Sunset Stadium in St. George, Utah, 9. Schulman Film Alley Weatherford, TX, and 10. Reading California Oaks in Murrieta, CA.

Something for Costner to be thankful for: Horizon ‘s opening isn’t as bad as his 1997 directed/starring western post-apocalyptic movie The Postman, which cost $80M, opened to $5.2M (unadjusted for inflation) and flatlined at $17.6M domestic. Horizon, similar to The Postman, received a B- CinemaScore.

With a total gross of $469.3M stateside, Inside Out 2 is now the fifth-highest animated movie of all-time at the domestic B.O., after Incredibles 2 ($608.5M), Super Mario Bros Movie ($574.9M), Finding Dory ($486.2M), Frozen 2 ($477.3M) and ahead of Shrek 2 ($444.8M) and Toy Story 4 ($434M).

Directed by Shunsuke Ishikawa, the movie, based on the manga of the same by Muneyuki Kaneshiro, centers on high schooler Nagi Seishiro as he discovers his hidden talent for soccer. One day, he receives an invitation to the mysterious Blue Lock Project. What awaits him there is an encounter with the finest strikers assembled from across the country. Nagi’s dream of becoming the best will take the prodigy to a world he’s never known. The manga is serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine and counts over 30 million copies in circulation. The anime debuted in October 2022.

The chart per studio reported figures:

• Inside Out 2 (Dis) 4,440 theaters Fri $17.1M (-44%) Sat $22.2M Sun $18.1M 3-day $57.4M (-43%) Total $469.3M /Wk 3

2.) A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,707 theaters, Fri $22.5M,Sat $17M Sun $13.5M 3-day $53M , Wk 1

3.) Horizon (NL) 3,334 theaters, Fri $4.1M Sat $4M Sun $2.9M 3-day $11M /Wk 1

4.) Bad Boys Ride or Die (Sony) 3312 (-469) theaters, Fri $2.8M (-45%) Sat $4.2M Sun $3.1M 3-day $10.3M (-45%) Total $165.2M /Wk 4

5.) Kalki 2898 AD (Prath) 1,049 Fri $1.7M Sat $2M Sun $1.57M 3-day $5.4M Total $10.96M /Wk 1

6.) The Bikeriders (Foc) 2,692 (+50) theaters, Fri $920K (-78%) Sat $1.3M Sun $1M 3-day $3.3M (-66%), Total $16.2M /Wk 2

7.) Garfield Movie (Sony) 1,762 (-1251) theaters Fri $610K Sat $795K Sun $595K 3-day $2M (-47%) Total $89.6M / Wk 6

8.) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (20th) 1,650 (-760) theaters, Fri $518K (-53%) Sat $690K Sun $492K 3-day $1.7M (-55%), Total $168.1M /Wk 8

9.) Jatt & Juliet 3 (WHS) 143 theaters, Fri $457K, Sat $597K Sun $448K 3-day $1.5M , Total $1.8M /Wk 1

10.) Kinds of Kindness (SEA) 490 (+485) theaters, Fri $725K (+305%) Sat $466K Sun $309K 3-day $1.5M (+298%) Total $2M /Wk 2

UPDATED, Saturday AM Final: A fresh take with a new cast and new director — except for the aliens — A Quiet Place: Day One is deafening its $40M+ forecast with a franchise record opening weekend of $53M and day of $22.5M . Last night, box office analysts saw both A Quiet Place: Day One and Disney/Pixar’s third weekend of Inside Out 2 fighting over No. 1. That drag-out fight between big eared aliens and adolescent emotions will continue throughout today. Disney is figuring a massive swing for the third weekend of Inside Out 2, between $55M-$59M .

While that doesn’t appear to look like a close call at the weekend box office, there are other industry calculations to reflect that. More to come.

While Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 clocked $17.1M yesterday, which is the same exact amount of cash as Toy Story 4 ‘s June 28th Friday gross back in 2019 (realize that was the fourthquel’s second Friday), some aren’t calculating that the studio gets a +35% bump today over yesterday. The reason being is that as kids get out of school, family moviegoing traffic shifts to the weekdays, so the matinee Saturday pop isn’t as robust. Inside Out 2 is already up 14% over Friday this AM, and will end the day up in the 20 percentile. The third Saturday for a Pixar film is wild: While Incredibles 2 ‘s third Saturday to Friday was +31% during pre-Covid 2018, Elemental was only +22%, and Lightyear +18% post-pandemic.

Age demo breakdowns for Day One were 32% for men over 25, 29% women over 25 (best grades at 81% on PostTrak), men under 25 at 20% and women under 25 at 19%. Forty percent of the audience went because it was part of a franchise they loved, while 36% said it looked entertaining and fun. Those nail-biting NYC apocalyptic trailers that Paramount cut sure worked, with 17% saying that the in-theater trailer and 12% citing the online trailer as the most influential forms of advertising for the Michael Sarnoski- directed and written, Platinum Dunes production.

Top-grossing movie theater to date for Day One is AMC Burbank with $76K.

Social media analytics corp RelishMix measured the online universe reach for Day One at 180.3M, +6% above previous installments across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram combined. The campaign also saw a lift with a near-27M views from the pre-game spot during the Super Bowl in February. Lupita Nyong’o is the cast’s social media champ with a reach of near 20M, the latest post in 22 hours nabbing 32K views:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo)

Says RelishMix: “The convo on  A Quiet Place: Day One  ran mixed-positive before opening, with fans of the franchise, as well as newer audiences, intrigued with the change of location, scope, and characters, exciting all in equal measure.

Prospective moviegoers are saying, ‘This is an awesome spin-off in the franchise,’ and, ‘Amazing! This somehow gives me  Cloverfield  vibes.’ The cast is pulling in many viewers, with a particular interest in seeing Lupita Nyong’o join the series. Fans are saying, ‘You had me at Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, can’t wait for this,’ and, ‘Djimon Hounsou, as always, will play the strong one. I like this guy.’ Lastly, the continued representation these film showcase for people with disabilities has people saying, ‘Love this franchise turning people with sensory disabilities into the strongest people and most fortunate.’ The world of  A Quiet Place  only grows larger and roaring praise toward the intense yet ‘simple concept’ floods the comments. Fans are also eager to see Nyong’o in another horror that compliments her ‘expressive’ and ‘captivating’ talent.”  

New Line’s distribution deal of Kevin Costner’s Horizon banked $4.1M yesterday, which is $100K shy of the $4.2M first day of his 2003 western, Open Range. That movie had a mid-August release back in the day, by the way.

This spells for an estimated $11.3M opening on the western, which Costner invested $50M+ of his own money in to shoot the entire franchise, which costs north of $100M. No, it’s not a great opening in regards to the movie’s cost. However, it’s depth to the box office for exhibition. They aren’t complaining.

Plus, the movie is bringing out a very older audience at 55+ of 47% — by far the movie’s biggest quad. At a time when cinemas need more movies than streamers, bravo to Costner for betting on himself in an attempt to capitalize on his Yellowstone audience and herd them toward the multiplex. A strong 40% said that they galloped to Horizon, as they were fans of Costner as a director.

Some intriguing under the hood with Horizon: Women were the majority turnout at 54% to men 46%, with women over 25 repping 48% of the audience. That demo also gave the western its highest grades, if you could call it that, at 74%. Diversity demos were 68% Caucasian, 14% Hispanic and Latino, 7% Black and 5% Asian American.

Horizon is playing best where it should be in the South, South Central, Midwest, and Mountain regions. Highest-grossing venue is Megaplex Pineview Stadium 10 stadium in Utah, with $12K so far.

RelishMix saw the grey landscape ahead for Horizon with the movie’s social media universe stats running 39% under historical drama, with 110.7M across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube, and Instagram. Costner is reaching out to his 4.2M fans on social, while Jamie Campbell Bower counts close to 7M.

Overall weekend for all films stands at $153.5M , which is 20% ahead of the same frame a year ago, when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny led the 3-day frame with a $60.3M opening.

• Inside Out 2 (Dis) 4,440 theaters Fri $17.1M (-44%) 3-day $55.3M (-45%) Total $467.2M /Wk 3 (industry average)

2.) A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,707 theaters, Fri $22.5M, 3-day $53M , Wk 1

3.) Horizon (NL) 3,334 theaters, Fri $4.1M, 3-day $11.3M /Wk 1

4.) Bad Boys Ride or Die (Sony) 3312 (-469) theaters, Fri $2.8M (-45%) 3-day $10.2M (-46%) Total $165.1M /Wk 4

5.) Kalki 2898 AD (Prath) 1,049 Fri $1.85M 3-day $5.8M Total $11.4M /Wk 1 Audiences love this movie at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The pic in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil is playing best in the East and the South Central with the Cinemark Tinseltown in Texas the highest grossing multiplex with $30K so far.

6.) The Bikeriders (Foc) 2,692 (+50) theaters, Fri $920K (-78%) 3-day $3.1M (-68%), Total $16M /Wk 2

7.) Garfield Movie (Sony) 1,762 (-1251) theaters Fri $560K (-51%) 3-day $1.85M (-51%) Total $89.4M / Wk 6

8.) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (20th) 1,650 (-760) theaters, Fri $518K (-53%) 3-day $1.8M (-53%), Total $168.1M /Wk 8

9.) Kinds of Kindness (SEA) 490 (+485) theaters, Fri $725K (+305%) 3-day $1.79M (+375%) Total $2.3M /Wk 2 Solid numbers throughout here for the Yorgos Lanthimos-Emma Stone reteam, especially from the Alamo theaters.

10.) Jatt & Juliet 3 (WHS) 143 theaters, Fri $470K, 3-day $1.36M , Total $1.8M /Wk 1 The rom-com from filmmaker Jagdeep Sidhu follows two police officers from Punjab who travel to London on a mission that proves more complicated than expected.

UPDATED, Friday PM: Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is heading to a $17 million-plus Friday, which will put the sequel on track for a third weekend of $60M at 4,440 theaters, -41%, making it one of the seven best third weekends ever. Oscar buzz is already developing around the movie, and rightfully so: it’s responsible for bringing audiences back to cinemas. Stateside gross will stand at $471.8M by EOD Sunday.

Yesterday, the pic’s global cume of $863M , already outstripped the lifetime total of the original 2015 title, which ended its run at $858.8M.

Right now, Paramount’s $67M prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is seeing a $20.5M Friday at 3,707 theaters, which again, is an opening-day franchise record for the movie ahead of the first two movies’ $18.8M and $19.3M starts, respectively. However, the three-day, per many, is being spotted at $48.5M , which would rep the second best three-day start in the series. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 70%, which is behind the first film’s 83% and second’s 92%. By the way, the current three-day projection is ahead of the $40M that was being spotted on tracking.

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‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Review: Kevin Costner Sets Stage For Epic Story Of American West And Its Complicated History

RELATED: 10 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024 From ‘Inside Out 2’ to ‘Twisters’

Sony’s fourth frame of Bad Boys: Ride or Die at 3,312 theaters is looking at around $3M today, and a three-day of $11M , -41%, for a running total of $163.9M by Sunday.

RELATED: The Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Box Office: Photo Gallery

Pushing its way into fifth place is the Bollywood title Kalki 2898 AD , with a $2M Friday, $6.5M three-day and running total less than $12M for the four-day at 1,049 sites. The movie grossed around $5.4M on Thursday. The feature, written and directed by Nag Ashwin, takes place in a future ruled by elites who revel in absolute luxury while leaving the rest of the world in darkness. There, a warrior must rise to protect the one who will bring a new tomorrow in this action-packed science fiction epic. That’s the logline. See the trailer below. Critics says 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences differ at 95%. More updates as we have them.

RELATED: 20 Western Movies To Watch After Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’

FRIDAY AM: We told you it was a franchise record in regards to previews for the Quiet Place franchise with A Quiet Place: Day One, and that’s what it is with a now-revised $6.8M total. That’s higher than Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($6.6M), which went on to a $58.4M openin g. If this prequel legs out like that, or even north of $50M, that’s a fantastic 3-day take for a third installment.

Meanwhile, New Line’s Kevin Costner pic Horizon : An American Saga – Chapter 1 came up short from where we saw it, with $800,000. Oh, no — but keep in mind that pic’s audience isn’t a Thursday night preview one.

Inside Out 2 did $11.2M Thursday, -12% from Wednesday for a second week of $156.8M and running total of $411.99M.

It’s a going to be a rich weekend at the box office. Last year at this time, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny led with a $60.3M 3-day, for an overall $128.2M weekend. It’s within reason that we will beat that marketplace total by Sunday.

THURSDAY PM: Paramount’s prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is heading to a franchise-record preview night between $5M-$6M , several sources inform us. Showtimes began at 3 p.m.

Tonight’s figure easily ranks ahead of the $4.3M made by the first movie in 2018 and the $4.8M made by A Quiet Place: Part II on its Thursday heading into Memorial Day weekend 2021, when summer kicked off for recently reopened theaters.

Those two movies were directed by John Krasinski, while the prequel is helmed and written by Pig director Michael Sarnoski. A Quiet Place: Day One tells the story about how the ferocious aliens with the highly sensitive ears landed on Earth in NYC. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou star.

Tracking had this prequel at $40M+ for the weekend, and given that it’s a genre film, it can be frontloaded. The first movie’s previews repped 23% of its $18.8M Friday, heading to a $50.2M 3-day weekend, while the second installment’s previews repped 25% of its first Friday of $19.3M for a 3-day of $47.5M, 4-day of $57M over Memorial Day weekend. Too soon to tell if there’s a ‘5’ in front of Day One ‘s opening. The Platinum Dunes production is rated PG-13. Paramount held the New York premiere Wednesday night at AMC Lincoln Center.

At this point in time, we’re hearing around $1M-$1.5M for Kevin Costner’s pricey three-hour epic, Horizon : An American Saga – Chapter 1 . At that level, it could get the New Line theatrical release, which is a distribution deal, to $12M . Realize this older-skewing title is a slow burn, not a one-shot, opening-weekend film. Best to assess this movie’s success in its first 10 days, as many take a summer break this week.

Critical reviews stand at 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t as bad as Costner’s The Postman at 14%, though below Waterworld ‘s 47% Rotten (which he produced) and under his 2003 film Open Range (79% certified fresh), and his 1990 multi-Oscar winner Dances with Wolves (87% certified fresh). Of his westerns, Open Range opened to the highest at $14M, was released by Disney, and ended its run at $58.3M.

As expected, Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 will rule the weekend with $55M-$60M. The pic crossed $400M in its 13th day of release on Wednesday. That figure is pacing 2% ahead of Barbie, which stood at $394.4M at the same point and time and finaled at $636.2M. The Kelsey Mann-directed sequel will click past the $1 billion global mark this weekend, becoming the 54th title to reach that feat.

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A quiet place part ii, common sense media reviewers.

Skillful monster horror sequel has blood, peril.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Fear can be conquered for the greater good. It's i

Regan, the eldest daughter, is an amazing role mod

This sequel still focuses on a White family but ex

Child's leg caught in bear trap; blood and gore, s

Softy spoken use of "damn it" (or possibly "goddam

Characters use a Johnson & Johnson first aid k

Bottle of vodka used to cleanse wound (not consume

Parents need to know that A Quiet Place Part II is the sequel to 2018's hit horror/monster movie A Quiet Place . Violence is fairly gory and graphic, though most of it's directed at monsters (heads exploding, etc.). A child's leg is caught in a bear trap, with a bloody wound; he screams in…

Positive Messages

Fear can be conquered for the greater good. It's important to take action when it's the right thing to do. Perseverance and courage are key to survival. Family and teamwork reign supreme, and community comes together when times are tough.

Positive Role Models

Regan, the eldest daughter, is an amazing role model. Her strength and persistence have no limits, and it's her dedication to her family, her compassion, and her charisma that carry this movie. Her mother, Evelyn, risks her life to protect her family.

Diverse Representations

This sequel still focuses on a White family but expands to include Black actor Djimon Hounsou, who plays a community leader, plus a few other characters from various ethnic backgrounds. Spoiler alert! While no characters of color live until the end, their deaths are on par with those of White characters. Strong female leads carry much of the film, including deaf character Regan (played by deaf actor Millicent Simmonds), who returns as the film's shining star. Gaining even more agency, she shows boundless courage when fighting for the common good. American Sign Language continues to be used throughout as a survival technique.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Child's leg caught in bear trap; blood and gore, screaming in pain. Other humans wounded, some blood visible. Monster-related blood and gore, exploding heads, etc. Scary monster attacks. Guns and shooting (entirely at monsters). Child and baby in peril (locked in hatch with air running out). Monster set on fire. Jump scares. General terror and peril. Decomposing dead bodies, skeletons. Alarming news report on television. A group of outcasts appears to have throat scars, briefly seen, suggesting that they slit their own throats to keep from speaking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Softy spoken use of "damn it" (or possibly "goddamn it"). Exclamatory use of "Jesus Christ."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Characters use a Johnson & Johnson first aid kit.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Bottle of vodka used to cleanse wound (not consumed).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that A Quiet Place Part II is the sequel to 2018's hit horror/monster movie A Quiet Place . Violence is fairly gory and graphic, though most of it's directed at monsters (heads exploding, etc.). A child's leg is caught in a bear trap, with a bloody wound; he screams in pain. A baby is also in peril. Characters shoot guns (entirely at the monsters). There are also jump scares, scary attacks, and general peril and terror. A character softly says what could be either "goddamn it" or just "damn it," and "Jesus Christ" is spoken once. A bottle of vodka is used to clean a wound but isn't consumed. Perseverance, teamwork, and courage are praised and crucial for survival. Deaf actress Millicent Simmonds has a pivotal and positive role as tough-as-nails Regan. Simmonds co-stars with Emily Blunt , Noah Jupe , and Cillian Murphy . To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (30)
• Kids say (97)

Based on 30 parent reviews

Your typical sequel!

What's the story.

A QUIET PLACE PART II flashes back to the first day of the sound-seeking monster attacks before moving to Day 474, not long after the events of A Quiet Place . Evelyn Abbott ( Emily Blunt ), her daughter Regan ( Millicent Simmonds ), son Marcus ( Noah Jupe ), and new baby must leave the ruined family stronghold in search of new lodgings. Regan finds a signal, and they head out to locate its origins. Stumbling on an industrial building, the family encounters a familiar occupant, Emmett ( Cillian Murphy ), who initially dismisses them. But after Regan discovers a song, Bobby Darin's "By the Sea," playing on the radio, they begin to realize that they may have more options to survive than first imagined.

Is It Any Good?

It's not perfect, but this admirable horror sequel is impeccably and skillfully directed by John Krasinski , who operates with meticulous use of sound and editing. In A Quiet Place Part II , Krasinski briefly appears as Lee in a prologue/flashback, showing the first day of the monster invasion. It's a taut sequence, recalling the early scenes of Hitchcock's The Birds by using commonplace things for suspense. But the movie, released at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, is even more powerful given its pre-attack images of a community together, hugging, sharing food, and gathering for a ball game. Then, the story jumps ahead to right after A Quiet Place , where images of masks and a Johnson & Johnson first aid kit feel eerily recognizable.

Even if the overall story is somewhat familiar in spots, Krasinski creates beautiful cross-cutting sequences, with images building upon one another, working in perfect harmony. Simmonds' Regan, who is deaf (Simmonds is also deaf in real life) provides opportunities for even more intricate sound design, as the movie shows what her experiences might be like; her staunch bravery makes her a powerful role model. It may once have been "just" a horror sequel, but thanks to the timing of its release, A Quiet Place Part II becomes a symbol for returning back to life.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about A Quiet Place Part II 's violence . How did it make you feel? How is the violence different when it's directed at monsters than when it's directed at humans?

What's the appeal of scary movies ? Why do people sometimes like being scared?

Do you consider Regan a role model ? Does she show perseverance and teamwork abilities? is her character an example of positive representation?

How does this sequel compare to the original? Did it seem like there was a good reason for a sequel?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 28, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : July 27, 2021
• Cast : Emily Blunt , Cillian Murphy , Millicent Simmonds
• Director : John Krasinski
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Character Strengths : Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 97 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : terror, violence and bloody/disturbing images
• Last updated : April 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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A Quiet Place

The Silence

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Finding Christ in a Horror Film: A Review of 'A Quiet Place'

Today many people associate Christian values in the cinema with films directed toward Christian audiences like I Can Only Imagine, God's Not Dead 3, and  Paul, Apostle of Christ . However, many of the most profound and Christian themes in the theater are found in movies that are not targeted toward Christians at all. And you can include in that group the powerful new horror thriller A Quiet Place .

The film opens with a family searching an abandoned drugstore for supplies. It soon becomes clear that we are in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Some terrible event has occurred and devastated society, but it isn't yet clear what it is. However, one feature of the scene stands out: the silence . Everyone is using sign language and proceeding with the utmost care not to make a sound. Before the final opening title credit has appeared on the screen, it becomes clear why.

While many post-apocalyptic films attribute the carnage to a microscopic pathogen or a terrifying zombie virus, in this case, we discover that the problem is an alien creature, one that (as we later surmise) invaded the planet approximately three months before. And here's the terrifying bit: it hunts by sound. As the movie poster warns, if they hear you, they hunt you.

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I know what you're thinking: a post-apocalyptic film in which people are hunted by killer aliens? What's  Christian  about that?

Family Values

Good question! Let's start with one core Christian concern: family values. As I said, the film opens with a family in a drugstore. It turns out that they are retrieving supplies for a sick child. And from that point on we follow this family through the film.

Not since the 2009 film The Road has post-apocalyptic desolation been illumined by such deep and powerful family bonds. For starters, there is clearly a deep love shared between the father (John Krasinski) and the mother (Emily Blunt). And that love comes fully into view with an undeniable chemistry when they slow dance (with headphones) to Neil Young's "Harvest Moon." (Incidentally, the actors Krasinski and Blunt are married in real life.)

Then there is the bonding of the father and son on a trip to gather food as well as the welcome of a new baby under the most unthinkable of circumstances. But above all, there is a powerful moment of searing reconciliation between the father and his beloved daughter. Later, as the daughter views her father's legacy of love laid out on a workbench, she comes to realize the depth of his love for her.

To sum up, A Quiet Place offers one of the most powerful and challenging depictions of familial love and commitment in recent cinema.

A Christ-figure

Family-values are consistent with Christianity, but they are not explicitly Christian. Are there any explicitly Christian themes? While Christian themes are not overt in A Quiet Place , they are definitely present. For example, the family prays at the beginning of their meal.

However, the most powerful moment comes when the father becomes a Christ-figure. The Christ-figure is a common literary technique in which a story draws parallels between the biblical Jesus and a protagonist in the story, most commonly in terms of the theme of reconciling sacrifice .

The moment of sacrifice comes when the father's children are being attacked by aliens. In that instant, he makes eye contact with his daughter at which point he tells her that he loves her and that he has always  loved her. This is a revelation because the daughter had long believed her father was angry with her. She now realizes that the separation she had sensed was of her own making. It turns out that her father had always loved her deeply (a fact that becomes clear later when she discovers what he had left behind on the workbench).

Here's the bottom line. A Quiet Place is a horror thriller. Folks who enjoy that genre of film will likely enjoy it. Those who do not (like my daughter!) should probably avoid it. But the fact remains that it is a powerful tale which is consistent with Christian valuation of the family and which offers a powerful analogy of atonement in the loving father who acts as a Christ-figure in laying down his life for his children. As such, the film reminds us that God is at work not only in avowedly Christian films which are marketed to an explicitly Christian audience. Jesus can be found in many other places as well, including (as it turns out) the post-apocalyptic silence of a bucolic, alien-infested farm.

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Inside Out 2 (Christian Movie Review)

A triumphant return to form, Inside Out 2 is Pixar’s best film in years. 

About the Film  

The original Inside Out film (2015) likely makes many people’s short list of favorite Pixar films. The inventive tale was a triumph that showcased the animation studio at the top of its game. Unfortunately, it also marked a high point that has seldom been reached since. A recent string of mediocre-to-bad films— Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear , and Elemental —has led many people to wonder if Pixar has lost its golden touch. Sequels often reek of studio desperation, but revisiting one of its most beloved stories may be exactly what the doctor ordered (and not just because Pixar’s chief creative officer is named Pete Docter). A triumphant return to form, Inside Out 2 is Pixar’s best film in years.  

Inside Out resonated with viewers not only because of its fun and vibrant story but also because it provided a rich and enlightening framework for understanding our emotions. Inside Out 2 takes a similarly insightful approach, but it keeps things fresh by exploring a later stage in young Riley’s development. When a flashing red light announces that “puberty” has arrived, the personified emotions of the first film—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust—are unexpectedly greeted by newcomers such as Anxiety, Embarrassment, and Envy. Suddenly, Riley’s head becomes a chaotic and turbulent place as she struggles to process the confusing experience of being a teenager. If the original film focused on navigating our base-level emotions, the sequel shows how we mature and form the beliefs that ultimately comprise our sense of self.   

If that sounds more like Psychology 101 than a form of family entertainment, take heart that the delightful film is brimming with effective humor and amusing worldbuilding. While some of the themes and specific circumstances may target a slightly older demographic, the film doesn’t leave younger viewers behind. My own nine-year-old twin boys loved the film, even if they resonated with different moments than I did as an adult. While younger viewers may not relate to the need for deodorant or the whiplash of hormonal mood swings, they can nevertheless understand Riley’s more universal struggles surrounding loyalty to her friends and developing a healthy self-esteem.   

The concept of personified emotions may not be the novelty it was in 2015, but the filmmakers keep things fresh by expanding the worldbuilding in fun and interesting ways. For example, the characters float down the “stream of consciousness,” a river filled with items representing whatever is currently on Riley’s mind. Later, they must cross “Sar-chasm,” a pit that amusingly lends a sarcastic tone to every spoken word. In other scenes, the characters are literally “bottled up” as “suppressed emotions” and get caught in a “brain storm,” as “idea lightbulbs” pelt down on them like raindrops. The concept may not be new, but the worldbuilding remains as clever and playful as ever.   

Many parents’ relationship with Pixar has been tested not only because of a drop in quality but also because of the studio’s tendency to emphasize unwanted themes or messages. Thankfully, Inside Out 2 is clean and wholesome, a refreshing change of pace from the ideological minefield children’s entertainment has increasingly become. There are several opportunities for the film to travel down some of those undesirable roads, but it restrains itself—and the film is better as a result.   

For example, while much of the movie is about developing a sense of self, the role of sexuality is not given prime importance. With a cast of human characters comprised almost exclusively of teenage girls going through puberty, Christian parents may find themselves holding their breath and waiting for the inevitable LGBTQ subtext, but the film doesn’t go there. Yes, Riley’s personified emotions journey to Mount “Crushmore” (which represents her juvenile crushes on real and fictional boys). But as a thirteen-year-old girl, her sexuality is not emphasized as a defining component of her sense of self. Instead, the film leans into deeper, more fundamental values, such as her convictions that “I’m a good person” or “I’m a good friend.”    

Fun, wholesome, and thematically rich, Inside Out 2 offers an important reminder that people are complex, and life is messy. In fact, while writing this review, one of my children dashed by my home office in tears over a trivial conflict with his brother. Instead of reacting with annoyance, I found myself thinking, “There’s a lot going on inside that head right now.” That’s the power of the Inside Out movies. Yes, they’re colorful and entertaining. But on a deeper level, they provide a lens through which we can see and understand ourselves and each other more clearly.    

For Consideration

Language : No profanities, although there are several uses of words such as “heck” or “oh my goodness.” One character also unleashes a nonsensical string of words that functions as a sort of profane tirade, although none of the words themselves are problematic.   

Violence: None.  

Sexuality : In a changing room, several girls are seen wearing modest sports bras. Much of the film takes place at an all-girl hockey camp. I didn’t notice anything suggesting a romantic relationship between any of the female players. If there are any subtle “wink and nod” allusions, young viewers are unlikely to notice them.    

Engage The Film

Beliefs and self            .

Inside Out 2 focuses on the formation of beliefs and values. It doesn’t expand its commentary to include religious or spiritual matters, but it showcases how our fundamental beliefs take root and how pivotal these beliefs are in understanding ourselves.  

In the movie, the personified emotions take Riley’s important memories down an elevator shaft to the deepest part of her, planting them and allowing them to take root and grow. It is a potent visual for how our sense of self is not merely the product of abstract ideas or “head knowledge.” It is shaped by our memories and experiences at a deeper “heart” level. The Bible cautions, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).  

The film is a timely reminder that as we interact with people, we are dealing with a myriad of deeply rooted influences (if that interests you, I encourage you to check out my new book on that topic, Straight to the Heart: Communicating the Gospel in an Emotionally Driven Culture ) . 

Empathy            

Arguably the most immediate lesson of both Inside Out films is that people are complex, and life is confusing. As a result, we should all strive to show grace and patience rather than frustration and judgment. Actions have consequences, as Inside Out 2 makes clear. But Christians should be slow to assign nefarious motives or hasty character assessments, understanding that there is always more taking place on the inside than we can see. An effective way the film highlights this truth is by having the audience leave Riley’s head to check in on the various emotions working behind the scenes in the minds of her friends and family. In a culture increasingly characterized by emotional excess and division, Inside Out 2 reminds us to show empathy and grace. The Bible urges us, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). 

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by Jeanniekay Zinda

Thanks so much for the thorough review. I have been searching for a Christian entertainment review site and stumbled across yours. Just what I was looking for! Our family is thankfully looking forward to the movie.

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A QUIET PLACE PART II

"exhilarating pro-family thriller".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Scavengers harass and threaten a man and a teenage girl.

More Detail:

A QUIET PLACE PART II is the edge-of-your-seat follow up to the popular 2018 science fiction thriller, with Evelyn, whose husband sacrificed his life to save his family in the first movie, trying to protect her three children, including an infant, from scary alien monsters who hunt by sound. A QUIET PLACE PART II is a visceral, gripping, ultimately uplifting thriller that never lets up, but there is some brief foul language and many scary, intense moments, so MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger, sensitive viewers.

The movie opens on the day that the aliens appeared in Lee and Evelyn Abbot’s small town in Upper New York State. It looks like the whole town is at a Little League baseball game, where their son, Marcus, is up to bat. Everything stops when a fiery meteor streaks across the sky. All the people start to leave, and the family gets separated into Evelyn’s car and Lee’s truck.

Suddenly, some large insect-looking alien monsters start attacking and killing the townspeople. Lee soon figures out that the aliens are blind but have an acute sense of hearing. This is beneficial to his family, because the whole family has learned sign language because Lee’s daughter, Regan, is deaf, with a cochlear hearing implant. Eventually, Lee, Evelyn, who’s pregnant, and their three children are able to escape the alien attack.

Cut to 47 days later. Lee and his youngest son, Beau, have died (as depicted in the first movie), but Evelyn has had her baby. To keep the baby quiet so that the alien monsters can’t hear him, Evelyn has constructed a basket with an oxygen tank for the baby. Evelyn, the baby, Marcus, and Regan are walking quietly toward a smoke plume in the distance.

Evelyn accidentally hits a tripwire, which triggers an alarm of glass bottles. The family starts to run but Marcus steps into a beartrap that grabs his leg. An alien starts to approach them, but Regan uses a radio microphone connected to her cochlear implant that emits a screeching sound. The sound disorients the alien monster long enough for Evelyn to shoot it dead.

A second alien approaches, however, and the family tries to run, but they’re stopped by a man named Emmett, whom the family knew back in town. Picking up Marcus and carrying him fireman style, Emmett helps them escape the alien by finding refuge in a large boiler he’s rigged with a thick towel, so that the boiler door won’t shut completely. The boiler is soundproofed, and the alien soon leaves.

Emmett tells Evelyn they can’t stay with him because there’s not enough food. He wants them all gone by morning, but it’s clear that Marcus can’t walk on his wounded leg.

Meanwhile, Regan discovers that the radio she has is playing Bobby Darin’s classic 1959 rendition of “Beyond the Sea.” Emmett tells her the song has been playing repeatedly day and night. Looking at a map they have, Regan sees that there’s an island just beyond the coast. Perhaps it’s a signal from some survivors on the island, she tells her mother and Emmett. Regan wants to walk there and see if that’s the case, but Evelyn forbids it. During the night, however, Regan slips away and starts walking toward the island’s location.

The next morning, Evelyn pleads with Emmett to bring Regan back, but he refuses. Emmett, whose wife has since died, says people have changed and shown their true colors. There’s no one worth saving anymore, he tells her. Regan is worth saving, Evelyn assures him.

Emmett agrees to bring Regan back. He reaches Regan just in time to help her fight off another alien monster. However, they run into trouble when they get to the coastal bay across from the island.

Meanwhile, Evelyn decides to return to town alone because Marcus won’t survive much longer without some more pain medication to keep him quiet. While she retrieves the medicine, Marcus starts to explore the factory. He accidentally makes some noise and attracts another alien monster. Can Evelyn make it back in time to save her son and the baby, who’s running out of oxygen? Can Emmett and Regan survive more alien attacks and a group of human scavengers along the seashore?

Like the first movie, A QUIET PLACE PART II is another instant classic full of intense jeopardy and scary suspense. Starting the movie by going back to the first day the aliens appear is a great choice. It lets the viewers see the father once again and connect to the trauma that the family has suffered because of his death. The third act leads to a powerful, slam-bang finish that intercuts between the danger the mother, her son and the baby face at the abandoned factory with the danger that Emmett and Regan face on the coast. The two sequences are brilliantly edited together by John Krasinski of television’s THE OFFICE, who wrote the screenplay, directs the movie and plays the father again. Krasinski cleverly links the two sequences at the end with an exhilarating, bravura flourish of sight, sound and music. It’s the perfect ending to a nearly perfect movie. D.W. Griffith, the “father” of such exciting cross-cutting techniques more than 100 years ago in Hollywood, couldn’t have done any better.

A QUIET PLACE PART II isn’t a didactic movie, much less a preachy one. Except for Evelyn’s comment that her daughter is a person who’s worth saving, the movie’s themes and messages are conveyed by the action instead of the dialogue. As such, the movie tells a pro-life message that promotes family, parenthood and risking your life to save other people from deadly, desperate situations.

A QUIET PLACE PART II does contain, however, some brief foul language, violence and many scary moments. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children and other sensitive viewers.