Keeping it Reel: A Louder Place

Those of you that have read my site for a while will know that I will occasionally watch a movie at the cinema that I just have to talk about, and whilst I won’t necessarily do a full review for it, mainly because I like to only review lesser-known films (at the time of writing, I can’t control if they become more popular afterwards) on this site, and it is time for another one of those following on from a screening of “A Quiet Place: Part 2”.

Now, before I start, I must stress that I do like this movie. It is one of the more solid sequels that has been released in the cinema in recent years, so please keep that in mind as you read on. I should also say that I watched this in a double-bill showing with the first movie, meaning there are some issues that might have gone under the radar.

And finally, before I begin, I must stress that I am going to be talking about spoilers for the movie, so please keep that in mind if you haven’t seen either “A Quiet Place” or its sequel yet.

Right, so let me start by saying that I love “A Quiet Place”, it is a film that gripped me from the moment I first saw it, and whilst it does lose something on rewatching, it is still my favourite movie that came out of 2018. When a sequel was announced, I was thrilled, but then it became the first major film casualty of Covid-19, with the pandemic causing lockdowns and cancellations of films due days before John Krasinki’s follow-up. Thankfully, it was released just over a year later, becoming the first major release once cinemas reopened in the UK in May 2021.

They say that good sequels should be bigger, louder and better than their originals. It is most definitely bigger, and certainly louder given that there are significantly more lines of dialogue in this, as well as more deaths, but whether it is better or not is down to interpretation.

“A Quiet Place: Part 2” is a very different beast to its 2018 predecessor. The main reason for this is that this movie is a mix between a road trip and more action-orientated, whereas the original film is confined to the farm, other than the odd scene here and there. The sequel takes place in numerous locations, including the original farm (briefly), the town that family lives in, a derelict factory, a train station, a dock and an island off of the New York state coast. In terms of scope, you get a far greater feel of the world and just how many people are impacted in various ways.

In many ways, this feels like a “The Last of Us” film at times. Seriously, one of the major plot points is about a middle-aged man who has lost everything, including his faith in humanity and his children. After being convinced by an old friend, he goes on a mission with a girl in her teens to try and save humanity from a serious threat. Along the way, they bond and he even saves her from a group that intend to rape, and potentially eat, her. Tell me that doesn’t sound like “The Last of Us” in a very brief summary.

As hinted above, the movie also introduces its first in-world human antagonists, a group of 10-15 who have resorted to living on a dock, ambushing unsuspecting victims. They tie up Emmet, played by Cillian Murphy, and make him watch as they start the process of raping Regan. If they do eventually make a Part 3, I hope that they bring more of this in (the antagonists, not the rape part) as variety is a good thing.

Great care and attention has been given to continuity over the course of the two films, especially as they are set just minutes apart. The hole in the silo created by the death-angel is still there in a long shot, bandages still cover Evelyn’s foot, and many other similar aspects that they could have easily ignored or not shown from between the films. None of these touches are focused on, but are definitely there if you look. It is one of the better examples of keeping continuity between sequels.

Having said that, there is one massive continuity issue that makes anyone who notices it ask why they set the sequel immediately following the first movie, instead of jumping a year or two, actor Noah Jupe’s puberty kicking in.

Now around 16 years old in real life, Jupe was still very much a child in the first movie, but because he has obviously aged in the two years between when the movies should have been released (2018 and 2020), he’s now suddenly taller than the sister he was several inches shorter than just a few in-universe days hours earlier. It also seems to have caught him in the period where a young man’s voice breaks. It might not necessarily be noticeable if you haven’t seen the first movie in a while, but I was in a double-bill showing of both films, and noticed near enough straight away.

The below images showcase the height inconsistency. The first is from “A Quiet Place” and Jupe is clearly shorter than Simmonds by several inches, and the second is from “A Quiet Place: Part 2”, where Jupe is now the taller of the two.

 

The only justification that I can think of is that they had to make a choice between skipping the years and explaining his growth that way, or keeping it in the same period, allowing them to keep the newborn. You couldn’t do both, so it is the lesser of two evils in that sense. Having said that, they could have done the time jump and trying to avoid the new addition to the family doing what Beau did in the first movie, could have been a decent subplot and brought about a strong emotional connection.

Many of the more interesting aspects of the movie revolve around Regan. The first movie presents her as a teen girl that feels unloved by her father following the death of her youngest brother. She is petulant, argumentative and rather than trying to talk the issues through, she does the typical teen act, but “A Quiet Place: Part 2” shows her on a hero’s journey situation. She wants to help and actively moves away from her family and a relatively safe place, all to share the knowledge of how to defeat the creatures with the locals, and by the end, she is a bad-ass.

She spends the majority of the movie with Emmet, someone who doesn’t know sign language, which is an interesting dynamic shift from the original film. This forces her to adapt into a more rounded character, and by the end of the film, it is clear that she is protecting him, rather than the other way around.

If they do continue the franchise, which is a distinct possibility, then it will be interesting to see how she continues to develop. She is arguably the lead character now, even if the least prolific of the five main actors across the two films (Krasinski, Blunt, Jupe and Murphy).

Now, in terms of the direction and storytelling, Krasinski has done a very good job. There is a lot of expectation subverting throughout, none more so evident than when Emmet and Regan are trying to read a microphone and the latter has to climb a window. Between her and stable footing are many objects that are in a precarious position, such as a cup, and each time you’re just expecting her to accidentally kick it, but she doesn’t. It actually makes a nice change from many other predictable horror films.

I compare it in this sense to “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It”, a movie that I saw before the weekend. I’m not a massive fan of horror because it is usually very predictable, and whereas “A Quiet Place: Part 2” does not fall into that trap, that can’t be said of the new film in the “The Conjuring” universe, in which you could telegraph the scares before they come. Predictability isn’t scary.

Another key moment of expectation subversion that is the result of two movies worth of building comes when Marcus is left in a situation where he could easily die. Jupe’s Marcus has been shown to lack any semblance of bravery and having a distinct lack of being able to be quiet when he needs to be (for example, his leg gets caught in a bear-trap early on in the sequel and he won’t stop screaming, even when there are creatures nearby), and you don’t trust him when it comes to ensuring anyone will survive.

There is a scene towards the end in which he is forced to hide with his baby brother in an airtight pipe and he soon starts to run out of oxygen. Evelyn has equipped the baby box with an oxygen mask, and Marcus goes for it. The way the character had been shown during the two movies, I was genuinely thinking he was going to sacrifice the newborn to ensure his own survival. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and he shared the mask. He also completes a good arc, as by the end he is more than happy to put his own life at risk to protect Evelyn and the baby.

So after all that, it might sound like I am being remarkably positive about the movie and some may question why I am saying that it isn’t necessarily a better movie. It’s very much a different type of film from the first, and I personally feel that “A Quiet Place” was more unique because of the setting and distinct lack of verbal dialogue throughout. “A Quiet Place: Part 2” does start feeling a bit generically apocalyptic at points.

It does retain a lot of the positives of the first movie, but I just preferred that film. “A Quiet Place: Part 2” is most definitely not a bad movie by any stretch and I will buy it on 4K when it is released, but I feel the original just works better. It was more gripping and engaging.

“A Quiet Place: Part 2” is in UK cinemas now.